WO2015113208A1

WO2015113208A1 - Load balancing method, apparatus and communication system

Info

Publication number: WO2015113208A1
Application number: PCT/CN2014/071676
Authority: WO
Inventors: 汪巍崴; 李兆俊; 吴联海
Original assignee: 富士通株式会社; 汪巍崴; 李兆俊; 吴联海
Priority date: 2014-01-28
Filing date: 2014-01-28
Publication date: 2015-08-06
Also published as: CN105612781A

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a load balancing method, an apparatus and a communication system. The method comprises: a first base station sending a request message to a second base station, and through the request message, requesting the second base station to provide information related to that the second base station or a cell of the second base station accepts a load of an operator indicated by the request message; and the first base station receiving an update message returned by the second base station, and based on the update message, obtaining the information related to that the second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the load of the operator indicated by the request message. Through the method of the embodiments of the present invention, operator-level load balancing is implemented.

Description

Load balancing method, device and communication system

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a load balancing method, apparatus, and communication system. Background technique

In an existing Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Enhanced Long Term Evolution (LTE-A, LTE-Advance) system, resources of one cell may be shared by multiple operators, and each operator is allocated according to an agreement. A certain proportion of community resources. However, the existing load balancing mechanism is only to achieve load balancing between cells, and the load of each carrier is also considered to be balanced among cells.

In the existing solution, the neighboring base stations exchange the load status of the cells controlled by them, and when the load level between the cells is unbalanced, the inter-cell load is implemented by switching users from the high-load cell to the low-load cell. balanced. However, when the resources of one cell are shared by multiple operators, the existing base stations cannot implement carrier-level load balancing according to the proportion of each operator's shared cell resources.

It should be noted that the above description of the technical background is only for the purpose of facilitating the clear and complete description of the technical solutions of the present invention, and is convenient for understanding by those skilled in the art. The above technical solutions are not considered to be well known to those skilled in the art simply because these solutions are set forth in the background section of the present invention. Summary of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a load balancing method, apparatus, and communication system to implement carrier-level load balancing.

According to a first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a load balancing method is provided, where the method includes: a first base station sending a request message to a second base station, requesting, by the request message, the second base station to provide the The cell of the second base station or the second base station receives information about the load of the operator indicated by the request message;

The first base station receives an update message returned by the second base station, and obtains, according to the update message, information about a load of an operator of the second base station or the second base station that is instructed by the request message.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a load balancing method is provided, where the method includes: receiving, by a second base station, a request message sent by a first base station, and determining, according to the request message, the first base station, Obtaining, by the second base station or the cell of the second base station, the information about the load of the operator indicated by the request message;

Sending, by the second base station, an update message to the first base station, and providing, by the update message, the second base station or the cell of the second base station to the first base station to accept an operator indicated by the request message Information about the load.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a load balancing apparatus is provided, where the apparatus is applied to a first base station, where the apparatus includes:

a sending unit, which sends a request message to the second base station, by using the request message, requesting, by the requesting message, the second base station to provide related information about the load of the operator that accepts the request message indication;

a first receiving unit, which receives an update message returned by the second base station, and obtains, according to the update message, information about a load of an operator of the second base station or the second base station that is instructed by the request message .

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a load balancing apparatus is provided, where the apparatus is applied to a second base station, where the apparatus includes:

Receiving, by the receiving unit, a request message sent by the first base station, and determining, according to the request message, that the cell of the second base station or the second base station requested by the first base station accepts the load of the operator indicated by the request message Related information;

a first sending unit, configured to send, by the first base station, an update message, by using the update message, to the first base station, to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the operator indicated by the request message Information about the load.

According to a fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a base station is provided, wherein the base station includes the foregoing negative sixth aspect according to an embodiment of the present invention, and provides a communication system, where the communication system includes a first base station And a second base station, wherein

Sending, by the first base station, a request message to the second base station, requesting, by the request message, the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the operator indicated by the request message Information about the load;

Receiving, by the second base station, the request message, and sending an update message to the first base station, by using the update message to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to the first base station to accept the Request message Information about the indicated carrier's load.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable program, wherein when the program is executed in a base station, the program causes a computer to execute the aforementioned load balancing method in the base station.

According to other aspects of embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program causes a computer to perform the aforementioned load balancing method in a base station.

The beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present invention are as follows: Carrier-level load balancing is implemented by the method of the embodiment of the present invention.

Specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in detail with reference to the following description and the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the manner in which the principles of the invention can be employed. It should be understood that the embodiments of the invention are not limited in scope. The embodiments of the present invention include many variations, modifications, and equivalents within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Features described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same or similar manner in one or more other embodiments, in combination with, or in place of, features in other embodiments. .

It should be emphasized that the term "comprising" or "comprising" is used to mean the presence of a feature, component, step or component, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, components, steps or components. DRAWINGS

The drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the invention, and are in the Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can obtain other drawings based on these drawings without any inventive labor. In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a signaling interaction flowchart of an implementation manner in which two base stations perform information interaction;

6 is a signaling interaction flowchart of another implementation manner in which two base stations perform information interaction;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of a load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention; 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. detailed description

The foregoing and other features of the invention will be apparent from the The specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in the specification and the drawings, which illustrate the embodiments in which the principles of the invention may be employed, it is understood that the invention is not limited to the described embodiments, but instead The invention includes all modifications, variations and equivalents falling within the scope of the appended claims. Various embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. These embodiments are merely exemplary and are not limiting of the invention.

Example 1

The embodiment of the present invention provides a load balancing method, and FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the method. Referring to FIG. 1, the method includes:

Step 101: The first base station sends a request message to the second base station, where the requesting message requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the load of the operator indicated by the request message. Related information;

Step 103: The first base station receives an update message returned by the second base station, and obtains, according to the update message, a cell of the second base station or the second base station, accepting a load of an operator indicated by the request message. Related Information.

In step 101, the information requested by the request message is, for example: whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the cell of the second base station or The second base station can accept the load of the load of the operator; and/or the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the available resources of the load of the operator; and/or, The cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the remaining capacity of the load of the operator. The first base station requests the second base station to provide the foregoing information by sending a request message to the second base station.

In step 101, the request message may include a cell identifier and/or operator indication information and/or available resource indication information.

For the cell identifier, it indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide information about the cell receiving the operator's load indicated by the cell identifier. For example, the cell indicated by the cell identifier can accept which carriers' loads, and the available resources and/or load and/or remaining capacity of the operators' loads. If the request message only includes the cell identifier, the operator indicated by the request message may be the operator supported by the cell of the first base station or the first base station, or may be the cell identifier of the second base station. The operator supported by the indicated cell, but this embodiment is not limited thereto.

For the operator indication information, it indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the cell of the second base station or whether the second base station can accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator indication information.

In an embodiment, the operator indication information is an operator identifier, and the operator identifier indicates that the first base station wants to know whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the operator indicated by the operator identifier. Load.

In this embodiment, the operator may be an actual operator or a virtual operator, and the identifier may be a public land mobile network (PLMN) identifier or a group of PLMN identifiers. It can also be an identifier that represents a set of PLMN identities, and so on. Table 1 below is an example of the request message containing the operator identifier:

Table 1

As shown in Table 1, in this example, the first base station wishes to know whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator 1 to the operator 6.

In another embodiment, the operator indication information is an operator indication, and the operator indication indicates that the first base station wants to know whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the operator indicated by the operator indication. load.

In this embodiment, the operator indication may be represented by a string of bitmaps, where each bit corresponds to one operator or one operator on a cell corresponding to the second base station, Each bit value indicates whether the second base station is required to confirm whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit, that is, the value of each bit indicates the first Whether a base station wishes to know whether the second base station can accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

For example, in the existing served cell information, the first base station can know the list of operators or PLMN identifiers that each cell of the second base station can support. The bitmap indicates the corresponding operator with the corresponding bit in the order of the list, and uses the value of each bit (such as 1 or 0) to indicate whether the first base station wishes to know whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the The bit corresponds to the carrier's load. Table 2 is an example of a list of operators of cell information for the service.

Table 2 Operator 1 Operator 2 Operator 3 Operator 4 Operator 5 Operator 6 A bit value of "1" indicates that you want to know that a bit value of "0" indicates that you do not want to know, for example, if the bitmap in the request message is ""001001", indicating that the first base station wants to know whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator 3 and the operator 6.

For another example, based on information for each cell (e.g., "served cell information"), the first base station can know the list of carriers supported on each cell. According to the information, a bitmap can be generated, and each bit of the bitmap corresponds to an operator on a cell of the second base station, and the value of each bit (such as 1 or 0) indicates whether the first base station wants to know the bit. Whether the indicated cell of the second base station can accept the load of the operator indicated by the bit. Table 3 is an example of a list of operators supported by all cells of the second base station.

table 3

Still, the bit value is "1", indicating that it is desirable to know that the bit value of "0" indicates that it is not desirable to know that if the bitmap in the request message is "100010", it indicates that the first base station wishes to know that the cell 1 of the second base station can Whether the load of the operator 1 is accepted, and whether the cell 3 of the second base station can accept the load of the operator 4.

For available resource indication information, indicating that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the available resources and/or load amount of the load of all operators indicated by the operator indication information. Or the remaining capacity; or indicating that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the available resources of the load of one or more operators indicated by the operator indication information and/or Or load and / or remaining capacity.

In one embodiment, the available resource indication information is indicated in an implicit manner. For example, if the foregoing operator indication information is included in the request message, the available resource indication information indicates that the first base station wants to know the load of the carrier of the second base station or the second base station accepts the load of the operator indicated by the carrier indication information. Quantity (which may be a separate load or a total load), and/or an available resource (which may be a separate available resource or a total available resource) that accepts the load of these operators, and/or Accept the remaining capacity of these operators' loads (either the separate remaining capacity or the total remaining capacity). For another example, if the cell of the second base station or the second base station is capable of accepting the load of the operator indicated by one or more of the foregoing operator indication information, the available resource indication information indicates that the first base station wishes to know the cell of the second base station. Or the second base station accepts the load from the load of these operators (which may be a separate load or a total load), and / or accept the available resources of the load of these operators (may be separate available resources) , can also be total Use resources), and / or accept the remaining capacity of these carriers' loads (which can be separate remaining capacity or total remaining capacity).

In another embodiment, the available resource indication information is indicated in an explicit manner. For example, a new indication is defined in the request message, indicating by the new indication that the first base station wants to know the load of the second base station's cell or the second base station accepting the load from the operator indicated by the operator indication information. (either separate load or total load), and/or available resources that accept the load of these operators (either separately or separately available), and/or accepted The remaining capacity of these operators' loads (which may be separate remaining capacity or total remaining capacity). For another example, by defining a new indication in the request message, if the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator indicated by one or more of the above-mentioned operator indication information, the new indication indicates The first base station wants to know the load of the cells of the second base station or the second base station from the load of the operators (which may be the respective load amount or the total load amount), and/or accept the load of these operators. The available resources (which may be separate available resources or total available resources), and \ or the remaining capacity of the load of these operators (which may be separate remaining capacity or total remaining capacity).

In step 103, the second base station returns an update message to the first base station, where the second base station or the second base station is in the cell, by being able to provide part or all of the information requested in the request message. The relevant information of the operator's load is notified/provided to the first base station. Here, the information provided by the second base station to the first base station may be all or a part of the information requested by the request message sent by the first base station, for example, which carriers of the operators indicated by the request message can be accepted and accepted by the operators. The available resources and/or the amount of load and/or the remaining capacity of the load, etc., will be specifically described in the following embodiments. Optionally, the information that the second base station provides to the first base station may further include information related to the load of the second base station or the second base station receiving the operator that is not provided by the first base station but is not provided by the second base station. The operator here is the operator that is not indicated in the request message sent by the first base station. Thereby, the first base station can know which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station, and implement carrier-level load balancing.

In step 103, the update message may be sent periodically according to the period set in the request message, or may be triggered by an event. A possible event is to resend when the cell of the second base station or the second base station is capable of accepting the load of at least one operator of the first base station. Of course, this embodiment is not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, in order to respond to the request message in step 101, the second base station may also return a reply message to the first base station, where the method may further include: Step 102: The first base station receives a reply message returned by the second base station, and determines, according to the reply message, which of the information requested by the second base station can provide the request message;

In step 102, after receiving the request message sent by the first base station, the second base station sends a reply message to the first base station according to its own load situation or other policies, and the first base station is notified by the reply message that it can provide the request message. The information that needs to be known in the request message may be part or all of the information requested in the request message; in the case that any information requested in the request message cannot be provided, the second base station may reply the failure message to the first base station. To indicate that the request of the first base station is a failure. Thus, the first base station can determine which of the information requested by the second base station can provide the request message according to the reply message returned by the second base station.

In this embodiment, the request message may be a resource status request message of the existing LTE system; the reply message/failure message may be a resource status response message in the existing LTE system; the update message It may be a resource status update message in the existing LTE system, but this embodiment is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the request message, the reply message/failure message, and the update are The message can also be other messages.

With the method of the embodiment of the present invention, the first base station informs the second base station of the load of some operators that want to transfer to the second base station, and the second base station passes the information about the load of the acceptable operator through the update. The message is fed back to the first base station, whereby the first base station can know which carriers' load can be transferred to the second base station, thereby achieving carrier-level load balancing.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a load balancing device. As described in the following Embodiment 2, the principle of solving the problem is similar to the method of Embodiment 1. Therefore, the specific implementation may refer to the method of Embodiment 1. Implementation, content is the same and will not be repeated.

Example 2

The embodiment of the present invention provides a load balancing device, which can be applied to a base station. In this embodiment, for convenience of description, it is referred to as a first base station. 2 is a schematic view showing the composition of the device. Referring to FIG. 2, the device 200 includes:

a sending unit 201, which sends a request message to the second base station, where the requesting message requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the load of the operator indicated by the request message. Related Information;

a first receiving unit 202, which receives an update message returned by the second base station, and obtains, according to the update message, a cell of the second base station or the second base station that accepts an operator's load indicated by the request message. Related Information.

In an embodiment of the embodiment, the device further includes:

a second receiving unit 203, which receives a reply message returned by the second base station, and determines, according to the reply message, which of the information requested by the second base station can provide the request message;

In this embodiment, the information requested by the request message sent by the sending unit 201 includes: whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the second The cell of the base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the available resources of the load of the operator; and/ Or, the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the remaining capacity of the load of the operator.

In this embodiment, the request message sent by the sending unit 201 includes: a cell identifier, and/or operator indication information, and/or available resource indication information.

The cell identifier indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide information about the load accepted by the cell indicated by the cell identifier.

The operator indication information indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the cell of the second base station or whether the second base station can accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator indication information.

The available resource indication information indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the second base station to accept the available resources and/or load of the load of all the operators indicated by the operator indication information and/or Or remaining capacity; or indicating that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the second base station to accept the available resources and/or load amount of the load of one or more operators indicated by the operator indication information. / or remaining capacity.

In this embodiment, the operator indicates that the information is an operator identifier or an operator indication.

The operator identifier is a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) identity, or a set of PLMN identifiers, or an identifier representing a group of PLMN identifiers.

The operator indicates a string of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to an operator or an operator on a cell corresponding to the second base station, and each bit value indicates whether the first base station requests the first The second base station confirms whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

With the apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention, the load of some operators that wish to transfer to the second base station is notified to the second base station by using a request message, and the second base station passes the related information of the load of the acceptable operator through the update message. Feedback back, from which it can be known which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station, achieving carrier-level load balancing.

Example 3

An embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, where the base station includes the load balancing apparatus according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, base station 300 can include: a central processing unit (CPU) 301 and memory 302; and memory 302 coupled to central processing unit 301. The memory 302 can store various data; in addition, a program for information processing is stored, and the program is executed under the control of the central processing unit 301 to receive various information transmitted by the user equipment and to transmit the request information to the user equipment.

In one embodiment, the functionality of the load balancing device can be integrated into the central processor 301. The central processing unit 301 may be configured to: send a request message to the second base station, and request, by the request message, the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the operator indicated by the request message. Receiving the update information returned by the second base station, and obtaining information about the load of the operator indicated by the request message by the cell of the second base station or the second base station according to the update message.

Optionally, the central processing unit 301 is further configured to: receive a reply message returned by the second base station, and determine, according to the reply message, which of the information requested by the second base station can provide the request message; Optionally, the information requested by the request message includes: whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the cell of the second base station or the The second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the available resources of the load of the operator; and/or the second The cell of the base station or the second base station can accept the remaining capacity of the load of the operator.

Optionally, the request message includes: a cell identifier, and/or operator indication information, and/or available resource indication information.

The cell identifier indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide related information about a cell receiving an operator's load indicated by the cell identifier.

The available resource indication information indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to accept the available resources of the load of all the operators indicated by the operator indication information and/or Or a load amount and/or a remaining capacity; or indicating that the first base station requests the second base station to provide a cell of the second base station or the second base station to accept the load of one or more operators indicated by the operator indication information. Available resources and / or load and / or remaining capacity.

Optionally, the operator indication information is an operator identifier or an operator indication.

In another embodiment, the load balancing device may be configured separately from the central processing unit 301. For example, the load balancing device may be configured as a chip connected to the central processing unit 301, and the function of the load balancing device is implemented by the control of the central processing unit 301. .

In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the base station 300 may further include: a transceiver 303, an antenna 304, and the like; wherein the functions of the above components are similar to the prior art, and details are not described herein again. It should be noted that the base station 300 does not have to include all of the components shown in FIG. 3; in addition, the base station 300 may also include components not shown in FIG. 3, and reference may be made to the prior art.

Through the base station of the embodiment of the present invention, the load of some operators that wish to transfer to the second base station is notified to the second base station by using a request message, and the second base station feeds back information about the load of the acceptable operator through the update message. Therefore, it can be known which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station, and carrier-level load balancing is realized.

Example 4

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a load balancing method, which is a process on the second base station side corresponding to the method of Embodiment 1. 4 is a flow chart of the method. Referring to FIG. 4, the method includes:

Step 401: The second base station receives the request message sent by the first base station, and determines, according to the request message, the second base station or the cell of the second base station that is requested by the first base station to accept the operator indicated by the request message. Information about the load;

The information requested by the request message and the content contained therein have been described in detail in Embodiment 1, and the content thereof is incorporated herein, and details are not described herein again. Step 403: The second base station sends an update message to the first base station, and the second base station or the cell of the second base station is notified by the update message to the first base station to receive the request message indication. Information about the carrier's load.

The update message informs the cell of the second base station or the second base station of the first base station, which carriers of the operator indicated by the request message, and the load of the acceptable carrier load and/or available resources and/or Relevant information such as remaining capacity.

The second base station replies to the first base station with the update message if it can accept the load of some operators indicated by the request message.

Wherein, corresponding to the content included in the request message, the update message may include an operator identifier and/or a carrier indication and/or available resource information.

For the operator identifier, similar to the operator identifier in the request message, indicating that the cell of the second base station or the second base station (the cell corresponding to the cell identifier in the request message) can (or cannot) accept the The load of the operator indicated by the operator identifier.

For example, if the update message contains the identifiers of the carrier 1 and the operator 4, it indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load from the two operators.

The carrier identifier is a PLMN identifier, or a group of PLMN identifiers, or an identifier representing a group of PLMN identifiers.

For the operator indication, similar to the operator indication in the request message, it indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station (the cell corresponding to the cell identifier in the request message) can (or cannot) accept the operator. Indicates the load of the indicated operator.

Similarly, the operator indication may be a string of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to an operator or an operator on a cell corresponding to the second base station, each bit value (such as "1" or "0") indication The cell of the second base station or the second base station can (or cannot) accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

Taking the operator list in the request message shown in Table 1 as an example, if the second base station replies to the bit string "001000", it indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station can receive the load from the operator 3 in the first base station. .

Taking the operator list in the request message shown in Table 2 as an example, if the bit string "001001" is received in the request message and the second base station replies to the bit string "000001", it indicates the cell of the second base station or the second base station. The load from the operator 6 in the first base station can be accepted. Taking the operator list in the request message shown in Table 3 as an example, if the bit string "100010" is received in the request message and the second base station replies to the bit string "100000", it indicates that the cell 1 of the second base station can accept the first The load from the operator 1 in a base station.

For the available resource information, similar to the available resource indication information in the request message, indicating the available resources and/or load amount of the load of all operators indicated in the cell accepting request message of the second base station or the second base station and/or Or the remaining capacity, for example, the cell of the second base station or the second base station accepts the load amount of the operator indicated in the request message (which may be a separate load amount or a total load amount), and/or accepts the request message. The available resources of the operator's load indicated in the middle (which may be separate available resources, or may be the total available resources), and / or accept the remaining capacity of the operator's load indicated in the request message (may be separate Remaining capacity, which may also be the total remaining capacity); or indicating the available resources and/or load and/or load of the load of one or more operators indicated by the cell of the second base station or the second base station in the request message Remaining capacity, for example, if the cell of the second base station or the second base station is capable of accepting the operator indicated by one or more request messages Load, the available resource information provides the second base station's cell or the second base station accepts the load from these operators (either the separate load or the total load), and / or accept these carriers The available resources of the load (which may be separate available resources or total available resources), and / or the remaining capacity of the load of these operators (which may be separate remaining capacity or total remaining capacity) .

In this embodiment, the available resource information may be multiplexed with an existing information element (IE, Information Element) "Composite available capacity group" (TS36.423), and the content indicated by the information is for the operator. Not a community. The structure of the "Composite available capacity group" is the same as the existing standard and will not be described here.

In an embodiment of the present embodiment, corresponding to the step 102 of the embodiment 1, the method may further include: Step 402: The second base station sends a reply message to the first base station, and the Reaching, by the first base station, which of the information included in the request message can be provided;

The second base station, after receiving the request message sent by the first base station, responds to the first base station by using the reply message according to its own load condition or a predetermined policy, which information needs to be known in the request message, which may be in the request message. Part or all of the requested information; in the event that any information requested in the request message cannot be provided, a failure message is replied to the first base station to inform the first base station that its request has failed.

In this embodiment, the first base station and the second base station may exchange the request message, the reply message, and the update message through the X2 interface, or may exchange the request message, the reply message, and the update message through the S1 interface. FIG. 5 is a signaling flowchart of the above message exchanged through the X2 interface, and FIG. 6 is a signaling flowchart of the above message exchanged through the S1 interface. If the S1 interface is used, the first base station and the second base station perform signaling interaction through a mobility management entity (MME, Mobility Management Entity).

According to the method of the embodiment of the present invention, the information about the acceptable carrier's load is fed back to the requesting first base station through the update message, so that the first base station can know which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station. , achieve carrier-level load balancing.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a load balancing device. As described in Embodiment 5 below, the principle of solving the problem is similar to the method of Embodiment 4. Therefore, the specific implementation may refer to the method of Embodiment 4. Implementation, content is the same and will not be repeated.

Example 5

The embodiment of the invention provides a load balancing device, which can be applied to a base station, and is referred to as a second base station for convenience of description. Figure 7 is a schematic view showing the composition of the device. Referring to Figure 7, the device 700 includes:

The receiving unit 701, which receives the request message sent by the first base station, and determines, according to the request message, that the cell of the second base station or the second base station requested by the first base station accepts the operator indicated by the request message Information about the load;

a first sending unit 702, configured to send, by the first base station, an update message, by using the update message, to provide, by the first base station, a cell of the second base station or the second base station to receive an operation indicated by the request message Information about the load of the quotient.

In this embodiment, the information provided by the update message is, for example, which carriers of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load indicated by the request message; and/or accept the available resources of the load of the operators and / or load and / or remaining capacity.

In this embodiment, the update message sent by the first sending unit 702 may include an operator identifier and/or an operator indication and/or available resource information.

The operator identifier indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station can (or cannot) accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator identifier.

The operator indicates that the cell indicating the second base station or the second base station can (or cannot) accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator indication.

The available resource information indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station accepts the available resources and/or the load amount and/or the remaining capacity of the load of all the operators indicated by the request message; or indicates the second base station or the second base. The cell of the station accepts the available resources and/or the amount of load and/or the remaining capacity of the load of one or more operators indicated by the request message.

In this embodiment, the operator identifier is a PLMN identity, or a set of PLMN identifiers, or an identifier representing a set of PLMN identifiers.

In this embodiment, the operator indicates a string of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to one operator or one operator on a cell corresponding to the second base station, and each bit value indicates the second base station or the second base station. The cell can (or cannot) accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

In an embodiment of the embodiment, the device further includes:

The second sending unit 703 sends a reply message to the first base station, and the reply to the first base station is returned by the reply message to which of the information indicated by the request message can be provided.

With the device of the embodiment of the present invention, the information about the acceptable carrier's load is fed back to the requesting first base station through the update message, whereby the first base station can know which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station. , achieve carrier-level load balancing.

Example 6

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station, where the base station includes the load balancing apparatus according to Embodiment 5. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, base station 800 can include: a central processing unit (CPU) 801 and a memory 802; and a memory 802 coupled to central processing unit 801. The memory 802 can store various data; in addition, a program for information processing is stored, and the program is executed under the control of the central processing unit 801 to receive various information transmitted by the user equipment and to transmit the request information to the user equipment.

In one embodiment, the functionality of the load balancing device can be integrated into the central processor 801. The central processing unit 801 may be configured to: receive a request message sent by the first base station, and determine, according to the request message, that the cell of the second base station or the second base station requested by the first base station accepts the operation indicated by the request message Information related to the load of the quotient; sending an update message to the first base station, and providing, by the update message, the second base station or the cell of the second base station to the first base station to accept the operation indicated by the request message Information about the load of the quotient.

Optionally, the central processing unit 801 is further configured to: send a reply message to the first base station, by using the reply message, to reply to the first base station which of the information requested by the request message is available.

Optionally, the update message provides the following information: The cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the request cancellation. Which operators' loads are indicated by the information; and/or the cells of the second base station or the second base station accept the available resources and/or load and/or remaining capacity of the operator's load indicated by the request message.

Optionally, the update message includes: an operator identifier and/or an operator indication and/or available resource information. The operator identifier indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station can (or cannot) accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator identifier.

The available resource information indicates that the cell of the second base station or the second base station accepts the available resources and/or the load amount and/or the remaining capacity of the load of all the operators indicated by the request message; or indicates the second base station or the second base station The cell accepts the available resources and/or load and/or remaining capacity of the load of one or more operators indicated by the request message.

Optionally, the operator identifier is a PLMN identifier, or a group of PLMN identifiers, or an identifier that represents a group of PLMN identifiers.

Optionally, the operator indicates a string of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to one operator or one operator on a cell corresponding to the second base station, and each bit value indicates a cell of the second base station or the second base station. The ability to (or not) accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

In another embodiment, the load balancing device may be configured separately from the central processing unit 801. For example, the load balancing device may be configured as a chip connected to the central processing unit 801, and the function of the load balancing device is implemented by the control of the central processing unit 801. .

In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, the base station 800 may further include: a transceiver 803, an antenna 804, and the like; wherein the functions of the above components are similar to those of the prior art, and details are not described herein again. It should be noted that the base station 800 does not necessarily have to include all of the components shown in FIG. 8. In addition, the base station 800 may also include components not shown in FIG. 8, and reference may be made to the prior art.

The base station of the embodiment of the present invention feeds back information about the acceptable carrier's load to the first base station that sends the request through the update message, so that the first base station can know which carriers' load can be transferred to the second base station. , achieve carrier-level load balancing.

Example 7

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication system, which includes the first base station described in Embodiment 3 and the second base station described in Embodiment 6. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9, the communication system 900 includes a first base station 901 and a second base station 902. among them,

The first base station 901 sends a request message to the second base station 902, by using the request message, requesting the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station to receive the information about the load of the operator indicated by the request message;

The second base station 902 receives the request message, and sends an update message to the first base station 901, and provides, by the update message, the first base station 901 to the second base station 902 or the cell of the second base station 902 to accept the load of the operator indicated by the request message. Related information.

Optionally, the second base station 902 may also send a reply message to the first base station 901, and reply to the first base station 901 by using the reply message to which of the related information can be provided.

The first base station and the second base station exchange the foregoing message through the X2 interface.

In this embodiment, the first base station 901 may be the base station 300 described in Embodiment 3; the second base station 902 may be the second base station 800 described in Embodiment 6. The content thereof is incorporated herein and will not be described again here.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing another configuration of the communication system of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10, the communication system 1000 includes a mobile station in addition to the first base station 901 and the second base station 902 which are the same as the communication system of FIG. Sexual Management Entity (MME) 903. among them,

The MME forwards the request message sent by the first base station 901 to the second base station 902 through the S1 interface, and forwards the reply message (optional) and the update message sent by the second base station 902 to the first base station 901 through the S1 interface.

With the communication system of the embodiment of the present invention, the first base station informs the second base station of the load of some operators that wish to transfer to the second base station, and the second base station passes the related information of the load of the acceptable operator. The update message is fed back to the first base station, whereby the first base station can know which carrier's load can be transferred to the second base station, thereby achieving carrier-level load balancing.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer readable program, wherein the program causes a computer to execute the load balancing method described in Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 4 in the base station when the program is executed in a base station.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a storage medium storing a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program causes the computer to execute the load balancing method described in Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 4 in a base station.

The above apparatus and method of the present invention may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware in combination with software. The present invention relates to a computer readable program capable of enabling a logic component when the program is executed by a logic component The apparatus or components described above, or the logic components, implement the various methods or steps described above. Logic components such as field programmable logic components, microprocessors, processors used in computers, and the like. The present invention also relates to a storage medium for storing the above program, such as a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a DVD, a flash memory, or the like.

The present invention has been described in connection with the specific embodiments thereof, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that these descriptions are illustrative and not restrictive. A person skilled in the art can make various modifications and changes to the invention in accordance with the spirit and the principles of the invention, which are also within the scope of the invention.

Claims

claims

1. A load balancing device, the device is applied to a first base station, wherein the device includes: a sending unit that sends a request message to the second base station, and requests the second base station to provide its acceptance through the request message Information related to the operator's load indicated by the request message;

A first receiving unit that receives an update message returned by the second base station, and obtains, according to the update message, information related to the second base station or the second base station's cell accepting the load of the operator indicated by the request message. .

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device further includes:

The second receiving unit receives the reply message returned by the second base station and determines, according to the reply message, which of the information requested by the request message can be provided by the second base station.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the information requested by the request message sent by the sending unit includes:

Whether the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the load amount of the cell of the second base station or the second base station can accept the load of the operator; and/or the cells of the second base station or the available resources of the second base station that accept the load of the operator; and/or the cells of the second base station or the second base station that accept the load of the operator The remaining capacity.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the request message sent by the sending unit includes: a cell identifier, and/or operator indication information, and/or available resource indication information.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the cell identifier indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide relevant information about the load of the operator accepted by the cell indicated by the cell identifier.

6. The device according to claim 4, wherein the operator indication information indicates whether the first base station requests the second base station to provide a cell of the second base station or whether the second base station can accept all the information. The load of the operator indicated by the operator indication information.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the available resource indication information indicates that the first base station requests the second base station to provide the second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the operation. The available resources and/or load capacity and/or remaining capacity of all operators indicated by the operator indication information; or the first base station is instructed to request the second base station to provide the second base station or the second base station. base station cell reception The available resources and/or load capacity and/or remaining capacity of one or more operators indicated by the operator indication information.

8. The device according to claim 4, wherein the operator indication information is an operator identifier or an operator indication.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the operator identifier is a public land mobile network

(PLMN) identifier, or a group of PLMN identifiers, or an identifier representing a group of PLMN identifiers.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein the operator indication is a series of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to an operator or an operator in a cell of the second base station, and each bit The value indicates whether the first base station requests the second base station to confirm whether the second base station or the cell of the second base station can accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

11. A load balancing device, the device is applied to a second base station, wherein the device includes: a receiving unit that receives a request message sent by the first base station, and determines the load requested by the first base station according to the request message. The second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts information related to the load of the operator indicated by the request message;

A first sending unit that sends an update message to the first base station, and provides the first base station with the operator indicating that the second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the request message through the update message. information about the load.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the device further includes:

The second sending unit sends a reply message to the first base station, and replies to the first base station through the reply message which of the information requested by the request message can be provided.

13. The device according to claim 11, wherein the information provided by the update message sent by the second sending unit includes:

The second base station or the cell of the second base station can or cannot accept the load of which operators indicated by the request message; and/or

The second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the available resources and/or load amount and/or remaining capacity of the operator's load indicated by the request message.

14. The device according to claim 11, wherein the update message sent by the second sending unit includes: an operator identifier and/or an operator indication and/or available resource information.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the operator identifier indicates the second base The station or the cell of the second base station is able or unable to accept the load of the operator indicated by the operator identifier.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the operator indication information indicates that the second base station or the cell of the second base station is able or unable to accept the operator indicated by the operator indication information. load.

17. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the available resource information indicates the available resources and/or the second base station or the second base station's cell to accept loads of all operators indicated by the request message. or the load amount and/or the remaining capacity; or the available resources and/or the load amount and/or indicating that the second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the load of one or more operators indicated by the request message. or remaining capacity.

18. The device according to claim 14, wherein the operator identifier is a PLMN identity, or a group of PLMN identities, or an identity representing a group of PLMN identities.

19. The device according to claim 18, wherein the operator indication is a series of bit symbols, each bit corresponding to an operator or an operator in a cell of the second base station, and each bit The value indicates whether the second base station or the cell of the second base station is able or unable to accept the load of the operator corresponding to the bit.

20. A communication system, the communication system includes a first base station and a second base station, wherein,

The first base station sends a request message to the second base station, and uses the request message to request the second base station to provide the second base station or the second base station's cell to accept the operator's information indicated by the request message. Load related information;

The second base station receives the request message and sends an update message to the first base station, and provides the first base station with the update message through which the second base station or the cell of the second base station accepts the request message. The request message indicates information about the operator's load.