MXPA00012279A - System and method of quantifying the degree of balance between the forward link and the reverse link channels - Google Patents

Abstract

A telecommunication system and method is disclosed for analyzing the speech quality, e.g., the Bit Error Rate (BER), on the forward and reverse links to determine whether the links are balanced. For a target cell, the BER on the forward and reverse links can first be measured. The determination of whether the links in the target cell are balanced depends upon whether the BER percentage is known or only the BER class information is available. If the BER percentage is known, the relative difference of the mean BER on the reverse and forward links can be compared to determine the degree of the balance. However, if only the BER class is available, the relative distribution of occurrences of the BER classes on thereverse and forward links can be analyzed to determine whether the links are balanced. The analysis of the path balance can also be used to benchmark speech quality balance in cellular systems.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD TO QUANTIFY THE DEGREE OF EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE LINK AND EMISSION LINK CHANNELS RETURN BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates, in general, to telecommunication systems and methods for maintaining voice quality in a wireless network, and specifically to the quantification of the degree of balance, and of this voice quality mode, 'on the send and return links.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Cellular telecommunications is one of the fastest growing and most demanded telecommunications applications. At present it represents a continuously increasing large percentage of all new telephone subscribers worldwide. Cellular networks have evolved into two different networks. The European cellular network uses the digital mobile cellular radio system of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM, System Global for Mobile Communications). In the United States, cellular networks have traditionally been mainly analog, but recent advances have incorporated digital systems into analog networks. One of these North American cellular networks is the D-AMPS network, which is described below. Referring now to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated a D-AMPS Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN, Public Land Mobile Network), such as the cellular network 10 which in turn is composed of a plurality of areas 12 , each with a Mobile Switching Center, (MSC Center Mobile Switching) 14 and a Visitor Location Register (VLR, Visitor Location Record) 16 in this one. The MSC / VLR 12 areas, in turn, include a plurality of Location areas (LA, Location Areas) 18, which are defined as that part of a given MSC / VLR area 12 in which a Mobile Station (MS, Station) Mobile) '20 can move freely without having to send updated location information to the MSC / VLR 12 area that controls the LA 18. The mobile station (MS) 20 is the physical equipment, for example, a car phone or other portable telephone , which mobile subscribers use to communicate with the cellular network 10, each other, and users outside the subscriber network, in wired and wireless. The MS 20 also includes a Subscriber Identity card Module (SIM, Subscriber Identity Module) 13 or other memory that provides storage of information related to the subscriber, such as a subscriber authorization key, temporary network data and data related to the service (e.g. , the preference of the language). Each Local Area (Location Area) 12 is divided into different cells 22. The MSC 14 is in communication with a Base Station (BS, Base Station) 24, which is the physical equipment, illustrated by simplicity as a radio communications tower that provides radio coverage to the geographic part of cell 22 for which it is responsible. The radio interface between BS 24 and MS 20 uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA, Time Division Multiple Access) to transmit information between BS 24 and MS 20, with a TDMA frame per carrier frequency. Each frame consists of eight time slots or physical channels. Different types of logical channels can be mapped to physical channels, for example, voice is sent in the logical channel, "Traffic Channel" (PCH, Traffic Channel), and signaling information it is sent in the logical channel, "Control Channel" (CCH, Control Channel). In another reference to FIGURE 1, the service area of the PLMN or cellular network 10 includes a Home Location Register (HLR, Residence Location Register) 26, which is a database that maintains all subscriber information, for example, user profiles, current location information, International Mobile Subscriber Identity numbers (IMSI, International Mobile Subscriber Identity), and other administrative information. The HLR 26 may be co-located with a given MSC 14, integrated with the MSC 14 or otherwise may serve multiple MSCs 14, the latter of which is illustrated in FIGURE 1. The VLR 16 is a base of data containing information about all Mobile Stations 20 currently located within the area of the MSC / VLR 12. If an MS 20 enters an area of a new MSC / VLR 12, the VLR 12 connected to this MSC 14 will request data about this MS 20 from the residence HLR database 26 (while reporting to the HLR 26 about the current location of the MS 20). Accordingly, if the user of the desired MS 20 then makes a call, the local VLR 16 will have the requisite identification information without having to interrogate the HLR 26. In the manner described above, the VLR and HLR databases 16 and 26, respectively, contain different subscriber information associated with a given MS 20. Currently, voice and data are transmitted from BS 24 to MS 20 on an emission link channel 30 and from MS 20 to BS 24 on a return link channel 32. The balance in the quality of the voice in the broadcast link 30 and return link 32 is an important aspect in mobile communications. An important design criterion in cellular systems 10 is that the quality in both links 30 and 32 must be the same. A noticeable difference in the voice quality in the two links 30 and 32 can cause dissatisfaction in the client. Therefore, this analysis is important for systems limited by noise as well as interference. The voice quality in the digital cellular systems 10 is measured through the quantities such as the erasure of a frame, which is the percentage of the TDMA frames that can not be perceived and the erroneous bit rate (BER), which it is an estimate of the number of bits encoded in error. To measure the BER, the encoded bits that are transmitted in each burst or data frame through the send link channel 30 or return channel 32 are received by a receiver (not shown) and decoded, using, for example, a Convolutional decoding algorithm. The algorithm also estimates how many errors were induced by the channel. This estimate of the BER can be referred to as the BER without treatment. It should be understood that the number of errors estimated by the convolutional decoder is only an estimate of the actual BER. However, this estimate can be considered reliable to some degree, and since convolutional codes are usually the most efficient coding mechanisms employed, BER can be considered as the best estimate of the deterioration in voice quality. Currently, the BER can be mapped for a particular BER class, which varies for different standards. The corresponding BER percentages for D-AMPS (IS-236) as well as for the Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) are shown in Table 1 below, for the eight classes of BER (0-7).

Table 1: Mapping the signal quality for the BER The erroneous bit rate without treatment (BER) is quantified above in eight levels or small classes. The BER without treatment and the BER class are integrated to assess the quality of the voice. The advantage of the actual BER percentage is that it is a relatively better metric for evaluating the quality of the voice compared to the BER class. Understanding the information in classes results in a loss of information that makes this procedure unsuitable for use because the BER classes are on a non-linear scale. Therefore, the difference between class 1 and 2 may not be perceived by the user. On the other hand, the difference between classes 4 and 5 (2.5% BER vs. 7.5% BER) is very drastic. However, the BER class provides a concise and clear description of the quality of the voice for the system designer. The BER in the broadcast 30 and return links 32 need to be balanced, for example, practically equal, so that the calling party and the receiving party receive practically equivalent voice quality. In many cases, the BER is not practically the same in the broadcast 30 and return links 32. For example, the BS 24 usually has two receiving antennas, for diversity, and a transmitting antenna. In certain areas of the cell 32, the reception of the emission link 30 may be poor, for example, the erroneous bit rate (BER) is high, because the transmitting antenna is not properly located for this area of the cell 22 but at the same time, the reception of the return link 32 can be good, for example, the BER is low, because at least one of the receiving antennas is located satisfactorily with respect to the same area of the cell 22. Therefore, for maintaining a system with links 30 and 32 in equilibrium, the BER in both the emission 30 and the return 32 links must be analyzed at each point in cell 22. One such analysis method for link equilibrium is the link budget. The budget of the link allows the calculation of the maximum tolerable path loss based on the transmit power of the BS 24, PBs, the receiver sensitivity of the BS 24, SBs, the transmit power of the MS 20, PMS, the receiver sensitivity of the MS 20, SMs and the diversity gain Gdiv The transmission power of the BS 24 can be obtained from the vendor of the system, for example, the operating characteristics of the equipment. The other parameters are obtained from the system specification document. To guarantee the same voice quality in both links 30 and 32, the loss of the maximum allowable path in the return link 32 must be the same as the loss in the maximum allowable path in the emission link 30. The path loss Maximum allowable can be calculated taking into account the maximum transmit power and sensitivity of the receiver BS 24 and MS 20. In the emission link 30, this is: I PL | FL = PBS - Lf + GBS ~ S S + GMs [1] in the same way, in the return link 32, the maximum path loss that the system 10 can allow is: I PL I RL = PMS + GMs ~ BS ~~ Gdiv - Lf + GBs / [2] where GBs and GMS are the antenna gains for BS 24 and MS 20, respectively. For an equilibrium system, the trajectory loss is balanced by taking the minimum path loss from the maximum allowable at the emission 30 and return links 32, for example, PL = min I PL I FL, I PL | RL. Therefore, the equilibrium equation of the trajectory after canceling terms is: PBS - SMS = PMS ~ Sps - Gc_iv. [3] What Equation 3 implies above is that the power of BS 24 has to be adjusted so that | PL | FL = | PL | R, for example, the path loss in the send link 30 and the return link 32 are practically the same. It should be noted that the above equation is true only for a situation limited by noise. If interference is dominant in the system, then equation [3] is no longer valid for trajectory equilibrium. Typically, the broadcast link 30 is more prone to interference problems than the return link 32 because the BS 24 is transmitting in all time slots. Therefore, voice quality at equilibrium is a key aspect for cellular systems 10 and the balance in voice quality can change drastically as the level of interference fluctuates. Thus, it is important to observe this variation and adaptively update the parameters / characteristics of the cell 22, so as to maintain the balance in the voice quality. As stated in the above, normally the transmission power of the BS 24 is adjusted to maintain the balance of the trajectory. If the adjustment requires a decrease in the transmission power of the BS 24, this can be done easily. However, great care must be taken before increasing the transmission power, as this may lead to increased multiple / co-channel access interference for TDMA / CDMA systems. Once the system designer has adjusted these parameters, the objective is to assess if the voice quality is in equilibrium in the emission 30 and return links 32. The traditional approach for the balance of the trajectory does not take into account the levels of interference on both links. One reason is that unlike the measurement of the interference in the return link, previously it had not been possible for the systems engineer to measure the interference of the emission link. Hence, the engineer is not able to balance the two links in an appropriate way. Typically, the engineer uses equation [3] above or a similar method, which assumes that system noise is limited. However, this method is suboptimal in view of the fact that it does not take into account the interference levels in the two links. Furthermore, this existing method does not allow the engineer to have the capacity to statistically analyze the degree of equilibrium in the emission and return links. Another traditional valuation technique for the balance in voice quality includes the graphing of voice quality in the broadcast 30 and return 32 links as a function of time. However, this type of graph can not produce meaningful information because it is the statistics of voice quality that is important for the designer of the cellular network. This is due to the fact that the emission 30 and return links 32 are subject to independent short-term fading because the emission 30 and return links 32 are in two separate radio frequencies. As a result, the BER in both links 30 and 32 is independent as far as short-term fading is concerned. Therefore, the only accurate way to assess the balance in voice quality is to perform a statistical analysis of the information. Yet another known method for comparing the voice quality in the broadcast 30 and return links 32 is to compare the Cumulative Distribution (CDF, Cumulative Distribution) for voice quality in the broadcast link 30 and return link 32 as shown in FIGURE 2. As can be seen, for the example shown in FIGURE 2, the return link 32 has a higher proportion of lower BER class measurements, indicating better performance on this link 32, for example, the system it is limited as far as the emission link 30 is concerned, however, the degree of this limitation is not easy to quantify by visual inspection of the CDF. Thus, the distinction between a balanced and unbalanced system can be somewhat tricky. The CDF only provides partial information, and therefore, the degree of equilibrium is not clear with great statistical confidence. Therefore, an objective of the invention is to statistically compare voice quality, for example, the BER in the emission and return links to quantify the degree of balance in the links, based on the statistical importance of the data. Another objective of the invention is to take as a reference the balance of BER in the emission and return links as a "statistic", which can be used for comparative purposes in other scenarios, such as when the cellular system is sufficiently loaded and now the interference is limited. Still another objective of the present invention is to develop a methodology for the balance of a system limited by interference. Still another objective of the present invention is to adjust the power levels in the emission and return links in an adaptive manner in an adaptive manner in accordance with the equilibrium measurements in order to maintain the equilibrium in the emission and return links.

COMPENDIUM OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to telecommunications systems and methods for analyzing voice quality, for example, the Bit Error Rate (BER, Erroneous Bit Rate), in the emission and return links for quantify the degree of balance of the links. The analysis of the balance in the links can also be used to take as a reference the balance in the voice quality in digital cellular systems. Before evaluating the equilibrium in the link in a chosen cell, the designer of the cellular network must first adjust the parameters of the chosen cell and verify if the trajectories are balanced, that is, if the power of the base station is in a level where the loss of the trajectory is practically the same in the emission and return links. Afterwards, it is possible to measure the BER in the emission and return links. The determination of whether the links in the chosen cell are balanced depends on whether the percentage of BER is known or only information of the BER class is available. Based on the two types of information, it is possible to use two different methods to assess the balance in the quality of the voice in the chosen cell. If the percentage of BER is known, the relative difference of the average BER in the return link channel and the emission link channel can be compared to determine the degree of equilibrium. However, for the BER class information, the relative distribution of the occurrences of the BER classes in the return and emission links can be compared to determine the degree of equilibrium. It should be noted that the relevant BER classes are those corresponding to a larger BER, for example., Class 3-7. It is here that the balance in the quality of the voice is crucial and, therefore, slight differences between the number of occurrences of these classes in the emission and return links carries more weight than slight differences in the smaller BER classes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The described inventions will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show exemplary embodiments of the invention and which are incorporated in the specification of this as a reference, wherein: FIGURE 1 is a block diagram of a traditional land-based wireless telecommunications system; FIGURE 2 is a Cumulative Distribution graph illustrating the number of measurements of the Bit Error Rate (BER) class for each BER class within a cell; FIGURE 3 is a block diagram illustrating the statistical determination of whether the emission and return links are balanced in accordance with the preferred embodiments of the present invention; FIGURE 4 depicts the steps in an exemplary statistical determination of whether the send and return links are balanced in accordance with the preferred embodiments of the present invention; and FIGURE 5 is a graph that illustrates the Cumulative Distribution and the metric, which quantifies the equilibrium of the emission and return links for different classes of BER.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CURRENTLY PREFERRED EXEMPLARY MODALITIES The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to the currently preferred exemplary embodiments. However, it can be understood that this class of modalities only provides some examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings of the present. In general, the assertions made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily delimit any of the various claimed inventions. In addition, some statements may apply to some features of the invention but not others. Now with reference to FIGURE 3 of the drawings, to quantify the balance of voice quality in the transmission link channels 310 and return 320, the quality of the voice, for example, the Bit Error Rate (VER, Rate of Erroneous Bits), in the bonds of emission 310 and of return 320 must be analyzed. The aim is not to improve the quality of the voice, but rather to observe the balance in the quality of the voice in the emission links 310 and 320. This balance in the quality of the voice can be evaluated in a pyramidal mode, starting with the level of the system 305, then the level of the cell 340 followed by the level of the device. For example, the methodology can be applied at the level of system 305 to assess the operation of the system level, for example, it is possible to identify cells 340 with problems. It can then be applied at the level of the cells 340 to identify the problem areas within the cell 340. Finally, it is possible to verify the devices, for example, the Base Stations (BS, Base Stations) 330 that exhibit failure characteristics. In addition to providing a method to remedy problems, the analysis of the balance in the quality of the voice can be used to improve the functioning of continuous way. The own methodology of evaluation of the balance in the quality in the voice can be used for purposes of tuning and comparing the system. The comparison is usually done when new hardware is added to the system or to start a system. Then continuous tuning occurs to improve / maintain the operation with an increase in the load of subscribers. Referring now to FIGURE 4 of the drawings, which will be discussed with reference to FIGURE 3 of the drawings, before performing an assessment of the voice quality balance for a selected cell 340 (step 410), the designer of the cellular network must first adjust the parameters of the BS 330 within the chosen cell, which depends on whether the cell 340 is limited or not by the interference (step 400). It should be understood that the concept of receiver sensitivity is no longer valid in the presence of interference as the interference affects the noise floor kTB of the system. In addition, the signal strength required for the BS 330 in the presence of interference S ^ s depends not only on the theoretical noise floor kTB, but also on the interference level on the ILRL return link and the carrier-to-interference performance relationship (C / I). As the power levels increase for the BS 330 receiver (C), the interference levels in adjacent cells also increase (I). Thus, the operation of the receiver can be characterized by the following equation: SÍBS = kTB + ILRL + C / I [4] It should be noted that the level of interference that is specific to the system and can be calculated for each cell 340 using different known methods. Similarly, the operation of the MS 300 receiver for a system limited by the interference S ^ s is dependent on both the interference level on the ILFL emission link and the carrier performance characteristics on the C / I interference. . Thus, the intensity of the signal required in the presence of the interference for the MS 300 can be characterized by the following equation: Therefore, the equation of the equilibrium of the trajectory, which is the equation [3] described in the above, can calculated for a system limited by interference substituting the sensitivity of the receiver of the system limited by the noise SBs and SMs with the operation of the receiver of a system limited by the interference S1Bs YS ^ wsr respectively, which gives origin to the following equation: PBS - S BS - PMS ~ S s, [6] where PBs is the transmit power of BS 330, and PMs is the transmit power for MS 300. If cell 340 is limited by interference (step 400) , the interferences of the emission and return link can be calculated and it is possible to apply the equation [6] above (step 405) to verify that the paths are balanced in the cell 340 (step 415), for example, the power in the link of emission 310, which is controlled by the BS 330 within the selected cell 340, is at a level such that the path loss at the transmit 310 and return 320 links is practically identical. However, if the cell 340 is not limited by the interference (step 400), the aforementioned equation [3] (step 410) can be applied to verify that the paths are balanced in the cell 340 (step 415). The interference levels can change drastically within short periods and, therefore, this process of checking the balance of the trajectories (steps 400-415) must be done in a practically continuous way. Then, the BER in the send 310 and return 320 links can be measured in the selected cell 340 (step 420). Usually, the BER in the emission link 310 is measured by a technician in the field with a Mobile Station (MS, Mobile Station) 300 designed to measure the BER. Then, the measurements in the transmission link 310 can be sent, through the BS 330 or downloaded directly from the MS 300 to a Mobile Switching Center / Visitor Location Register (MSC / VLR, Mobile Switching Center / Location Register Visitor) 350 serving the cell 340. The BER on the return link 320 is commonly measured by the BS 330, which then sends these measurements to the MSC / VLR 350 for comparison with the BER measurements on the link of emission 310. It can be understood that it is possible to use other techniques to measure the BER in the emission and return links. In addition, BER measurements can be sent to another node (not shown) or to MS 300 for comparison purposes. The degree of equilibrium at the links 310 and 320 can then be quantified by an equilibrium application 360 at the MSC / VLR 350 or another node, using some statistical methods. The statistical method used depends on whether the percentage of the BER is known by the MSC / VLR 350 or only the information of the BER class for the MSC / VLR 350 is available (step 425). Based on the two types of information, it is possible to use two different methods to assess the balance in the quality of the voice. For example, if the percentage of the BER is known (step 425), the relative difference of the average BER in the return links 320 and of the transmission 310 can be compared (step 430) to determine whether the links 310 and 320 are balanced ( step 440). If the average percentage of the BER in the return link 320 is practically similar to the average percentage of the BER in the transmission link 310 (step 435), the links 310 and 320 are balanced (step 440). However, if the average percentage of the BER in the return link 320 is not practically similar to the average percentage of the BER in the transmission link 310 (step 435), the links 310 and 320 are unbalanced (step 445) and the process begins again (step 485). The amount of acceptable difference between the average BERs in the send 310 and return 320 links can be determined by the network provider. However, in the case that only the BER classes are known (step 425), the measurements of the BER class can be inversely mapped to the average percentage of BER in this class (step 450), and then it is possible to determine the difference between the average of the percentages of BER mapped (step 430). This can give an approximate estimate of the balance in the quality of the voice. An example of the mapping of the BER class is shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Mapping the signal quality for the BER As can be seen in Table 2 above, a big error occurs, especially in the BER class 7, which includes all the percentages of BER from 8 or 10% up to 100%. Therefore, this method will only provide an approximate estimate of the balance, since important information has been lost in the comparison. It should be understood that the underlying testing procedure depends on the underlying distribution of the data. If the distribution can be considered normal, then it is possible to use the test procedure to determine whether links 310 and 320 are balanced. However, if the data are not adequately described by the normal distribution, then it is possible to use nonparametric procedures, such as the signal classification test, as is known in the art. Otherwise, if only the information of the BER class is available (step 425) it is possible to use another method, called the bonomy of the fit test, which depends on the relative distribution of the number of occurrences of the BER classes in the return 320 and the return link 310 (step 455) to quantify the balance of links 310 and 320 (step 475). The degree of equilibrium of the two links 310 and 320 in the fitting test is related to the metric (step 460) and the level of importance observed (step 465) obtained by comparing different intervals of the BER class. If the distribution of the BER for each class BER is approximately equal (step 470), then the two links 310 and 320 are approximately balanced (step 475). However, if the distribution is not the same (step 470), then the voice quality is not balanced (step 480) and the process starts again (step 485). The goodness of the fitting test does not depend on the underlying distribution of the measurements. Instead, as described in the above, the test observes the number of occurrences of each BER class. To calculate the metric for the goodness of the fit test (step 460), the number of occurrences of each BER class in the return voice 320 and emission 310 channels can be placed in a table like the one illustrated in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Calculation of the metric for the goodness of the fitting test of the square chi In Table 3 above, Nf ?, Nr? they are the number of occurrences in the bonds of emission 310 and of return 320 for the classes of BER i-1, i-l = 0, ..., 7, and Ni = Nfi + Nri. In addition, "N" is the total number of occurrences. The goodness of the adjustment test for equilibrium can be done by calculating the metric (step 460) as indicated by the following equation: In Equation 7 above, the degrees of freedom are (8-1) * (2-1) = 7. Therefore, the calculated metric (step 460) can be compared to the cumulative distribution of the square chi (CDF), for example, the probability that Q > 0, with 7 degrees of freedom, as shown in FIGURE 7 of the drawings. The level of importance observed for the "p-value" can be calculated (step 465) from the CDF and is defined as the value p = 1-chi-square CDF (step 465). As indicated in FIGURE 5, the horizontal axis shows Q for degrees of freedom 4-7, and the vertical axis specifies the CDF. To determine whether the links 310 and 320 are balanced (step 475), the metric (Q) (step 460) and the corresponding observed significance level (step 465) must be considered. The minimum level of meaning required for balanced links 310 and 320 can be defined by the system designer. The lower the minimum level required, the greater the value of Q required to find that the links 310 and 320 are balanced. It should be noted that BER classes of particular importance are those corresponding to the higher BER percentages, for example, class 3-7. It is here that the balance in the quality of the voice is crucial, and therefore, slight differences between the number of occurrences of these classes in the bonds of emission 310 and of return 320 carry more weight than slight differences in the number of occurrences of the lower BER classes. As will be realized by experts in the art, the innovative concepts described in the present application can be modified and varied in a wide range of applications. Therefore, the scope of the patented matter should not be limited to any of the specific exemplary teachings described, but instead is defined by the following clauses:

Claims (24)

1. A telecommunications system for quantifying the degree of equilibrium of an emission link channel and a return link channel within a cell within a cellular network, the telecommunications system comprises: a base station within the cell, the station base by measuring a plurality of erroneous bit rates in the return link channel; the measuring means for measuring a plurality of erroneous bit rates in the transmission link channel; and means for quantifying the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return link channels with base, in the erroneous bit rates in the return link channel and the erroneous bit rates in the transmission link channel.

2. The telecommunications system of claim 1 further comprises an equilibrium node in communication with the base station, the balancer node residing the erroneous bit rates in the return link from the base station and the erroneous bit rates in the link of the base station. issue.

3. The telecommunications system of claim 2, wherein the quantizing means is within the balancing node.

4. The telecommunications system of claim 2, wherein the balancing node is a mobile switching center.

5. The telecommunications system of claim 1, further comprising a mobile terminal in wireless communication with the base station, the measuring means being located within the mobile terminal.

The telecommunications system of claim 1, wherein the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return links is determined by the quantizing means that determine a first average of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and a second average error bit rates in the return link, the quantizing means determining a value corresponding to the difference between the first average and the second average.

The telecommunication system of claim 1, wherein the erroneous bit rates in the send and return links are erroneous bit rate classes.

The telecommunication system of claim 7, wherein the quantizing means converts each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates into the emission and return links into average percentages of the erroneous bit rates, the quantization means determining a first average of the average percentages of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and a second average of the average percentages of the erroneous bit rates in the return link, the quantizing means determining a value corresponding to the difference between the first average and the second average, the quantifying means quantifying the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return links using this value.

The telecommunications system of claim 7, wherein the quantizing means determines the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and the number of each of the classes of the bit rates erroneous in the return link, the quantizing means calculating a metric from the number of each of the classes of erroneous bit rates in the emission link and the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the return link.

The telecommunication system of claim 9, wherein the quantizing means determines a chi-square cumulative distribution based on the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the return link, the quantizing means calculating an observed level of importance based on the cumulative distribution of the square chi, the quantifying means determining the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return based on the metric and the level of importance observed.

11. The telecommunications system of claim 1, further comprising the verification means for verifying that the loss of the path in the emission link channel is substantially identical to the loss of the path in the return link channel.

The telecommunications system of claim 11, wherein the means of verification uses the level of interference and the relationship of carrier to interference operation in the emission and return link channels.

13. A method for quantifying the degree of equilibrium of an emission link channel and a return link channel within a cell within a cellular network, the method comprising the steps of: measuring, by means of a base station within the cell, a plurality of erroneous bit rates in the return link channel; measuring a plurality of erroneous bit rates in the emission link channel; and quantifying the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return link channels based on the erroneous bit rates in the return link channel and the erroneous bit rates in the transmission link channel.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprises, before the quantization step, the step of: receiving, via an equilibrium node in communication with the base station, the erroneous bit rates in the return link from the base station and erroneous bit rates in the broadcast link.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the quantizing step is performed by an equilibrium node.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the equilibrium node is a mobile switching center.

The method of claim 13, wherein the step of measuring the erroneous bit rates in the return channel is performed by a mobile terminal in wireless communication with the base station.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the quantizing step is performed by determining a first average of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and a second average of the erroneous bit rates in the return link, and determining a value corresponding to the difference between the first average and the second average.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the erroneous bit rates in the send and return links are classes of erroneous bit rates.

The method of claim 19, wherein the quantizing step is performed by converting each of the erroneous bit rate classes in the send and return links in average percentages of the erroneous bit rates, determining a first average of the average percentages of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and a second average of the average percentages of the erroneous bit rates in the return link, and determining a value corresponding to the difference between the first average and the second average.

The method of claim 19, wherein the quantizing step is performed by determining the number of each of the erroneous bit rate classes in the emission link and the number of each of the erroneous bit rate classes in the return link, and calculating a metric from the number of each of the classes of erroneous bit rates in the emission link and the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the return link .

The method of claim 21, wherein the quantizing step is further performed by determining a chi-square cumulative distribution based on the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the emission link and the number of each of the classes of the erroneous bit rates in the return link, calculating a level of importance observed based on the chi square cumulative distribution, the step of quantifying the degree of equilibrium of the emission and return links being with based on the metric and the level of importance observed.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising, before the step of measuring the erroneous bit rates in the return link channel, the step of: verifying that the loss in the path in the emission link channel is substantially identical to the loss of the path in the return link channel. The method of claim 23, wherein the verification step is performed using the interference level and the carrier-to-interference ratio in the forward and return link channels.