Method and apparatus for determining cell states to adjust antenna configuration parameters

1. A method for determining cell states to adjust antenna configuration parameters, the method comprising:

receiving, at a radio access node in a network, measurement reports from a plurality of user equipment devices;

performing, at the radio access node, a weak coverage analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether a cell provided by the radio access node is assigned a good coverage state or a weak coverage state, wherein the weak coverage analysis comprises

identifying a first number of user equipment devices served by the cell having good coverage; and

identifying at least one of a second number of user equipment devices served by the cell having weak edge coverage and a third number of user equipment devices served by the cell having weak interior coverage;

performing, at the radio access node, an overshooting analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned an overshooter state or a non-overshooter state;

performing, at the radio access node, an interference analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned an interferer state or a non-interferer state;

performing, at the radio access node, a quality analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned a good quality state or a bad quality state; and

performing, at the radio access node, adjustments to antenna configuration parameters of the cell provided by the radio access node in response to the various states assigned to the cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the weak coverage analysis further comprises:

determining a weak coverage ratio of user equipment devices served by the cell from the first, second, and third numbers;

assigning the good coverage state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak coverage ratio not exceeding a coverage ratio threshold; and

assigning the weak coverage state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak coverage ratio exceeding the coverage ratio threshold.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the weak coverage analysis further comprises:

determining a weak edge ratio and a weak interior ratio of user equipment devices served by the cell from the first, second, and third numbers;

assigning a weak edge state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak edge ratio exceeding an edge ratio threshold; and

assigning a weak interior state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak interior ratio exceeding an interior ratio threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the overshooting analysis comprises:

computing inter site distances between the cell provided by the radio access node and other cells in the network;

determining a number of overlapped user equipment devices between the cell provided by the radio access network and the other cells in the network;

identifying whether the cell and a second cell in the network comprise an outlier cell pair based on whether a number of overlapped user equipment devices exceeds an overlap threshold for an associated inter site distance between the cell and the second cell;

determining whether the cell or the second cell is an overshooter based on a ranking of the cell and the second cell in one or more lists of cells ranked by at least one value reported in the measurement reports.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interference analysis comprises:

identifying user equipment devices in the network with a quality value below a threshold level;

determining whether the cell provided by the radio access node has a reference signal received power affecting the quality value of the user equipment devices in the network; and

maintaining a counter to record a number of user equipment devices affected by the cell.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interference analysis further comprises:

assigning a weak/non-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being less than a first threshold value;

assigning a medium/single-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being greater than the first threshold value and less than a second threshold; and

assigning a strong/multi-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being greater than the second threshold value.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality analysis further comprises:

comparing a quality value in the measurement reports of each user equipment device best served by the cell to a quality threshold;

determining a percentage of user equipment devices exceeding the quality threshold;

assigning a good quality state to the cell in response to the percentage exceeding a quality reference percentage; and

assigning a bad quality state to the cell in response to the percentage not exceeding a quality reference percentage.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjustments to the antenna configuration parameters are performed without knowledge of the actual antenna configuration parameters.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjustments to the antenna configuration parameters are performed without knowledge of the location of the user equipment devices transmitting the measurement reports.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one intermediate state exists between at least one of the following pairs:

the good coverage state and the weak coverage state,

the interferer state and the non-interferer state,

the good quality state and the bad quality state,

and the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned to one or more of the at least one intermediate state.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the overshooting analysis comprises:

determining whether a normalized overshoot counter for the cell exceeds a first threshold;

determining whether a fraction of measurement reports served by the cell exceeds a threshold minimum fraction of traffic that a cell must carry to be an overshooter; and

determining that the cell is an overshooter when the normalized overshoot counter for the cell exceeds the first threshold and the fraction of measurement reports served by the cell exceeds the threshold minimum fraction of traffic.

12. An apparatus for determining cell states to adjust antenna configuration parameters, the apparatus comprising:

a non-transitory readable medium storing programming instructions in memory; and

a processor, upon executing the programming instructions, configured to:

receive, at a radio access node in a network, measurement reports from a plurality of user equipment devices;

perform, at the radio access node, a weak coverage analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether a cell provided by the radio access node is assigned a good coverage state or a weak coverage state;

perform, at the radio access node, an overshooting analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned an overshooter state or a non-overshooter state, the overshooting analysis comprising

computing inter site distances between the cell provided by the radio access node and other cells in the network;

determining a number of overlapped user equipment devices between the cell provided by the radio access network and the other cells in the network, wherein the overshooting is identified based on the number of overlapping user equipment devices in relation to the inter site distances between cells in an outlier pair of cells;

perform, at the radio access node, an interference analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned an interferer state or a non-interferer state;

perform, at the radio access node, a quality analysis in response to the measurement reports to determine whether the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned a good quality state or a bad quality state; and

perform, at the radio access node, adjustments to antenna configuration parameters of the cell provided by the radio access node in response to the various states assigned to the cell.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the weak coverage analysis comprises:

identifying a first number of user equipment devices served by the cell having good coverage;

identifying a second number of user equipment devices served by the cell having weak edge coverage; and

identifying a third number of user equipment devices served by the cell having weak interior coverage.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the weak coverage analysis further comprises:

determining a weak coverage ratio of user equipment devices served by the cell from the first, second, and third numbers;

assigning the good coverage state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak coverage ratio not exceeding a coverage ratio threshold; and

assigning the weak coverage state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak coverage ratio exceeding the coverage ratio threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the weak coverage analysis further comprises:

determining a weak edge ratio and a weak interior ratio of user equipment devices served by the cell from the first, second, and third numbers;

assigning a weak edge state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak edge ratio exceeding an edge ratio threshold; and

assigning a weak interior state to the cell provided by the radio access network in response to the weak interior ratio exceeding an interior ratio threshold.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the overshooting analysis further comprises:

identifying whether the cell and a second cell in the network comprise the outlier cell pair based on whether the number of overlapped user equipment devices exceeds an overlap threshold for an associated inter site distance between the cell and the second cell; and

determining whether the cell or the second cell is an overshooter candidate based on a ranking of the cell and the second cell in one or more lists of cells ranked by at least one value reported in the measurement reports.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the interference analysis comprises:

identifying user equipment devices in the network with a quality value below a threshold level;

determining whether the cell provided by the radio access node has a reference signal received power affecting the quality value of the user equipment devices in the network; and

maintaining a counter to record a number of user equipment devices affected by the cell.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the interference analysis further comprises:

assigning a weak/non-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being less than a first threshold value;

assigning a medium/single-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being greater than the first threshold value and less than a second threshold; and

assigning a strong/multi-interfering state to the cell in response to the number of user equipment devices affected by the cell being greater than the second threshold.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the quality analysis further comprises:

compare a quality value in the measurement reports of each user equipment device best served by the cell to a quality threshold;

determine a percentage of user equipment devices exceeding the quality threshold;

assigning a good quality state to the cell in response to the percentage exceeding a quality reference percentage; and

assigning a bad quality state to the cell in response to the percentage not exceeding a quality reference percentage.

20. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the adjustments to the antenna configuration parameters are performed without knowledge of the actual antenna configuration parameters.

21. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the adjustments to the antenna configuration parameters are performed without knowledge of the location of the user equipment devices transmitting the measurement reports.

22. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein at least one intermediate state exists between at least one of the following pairs:

the good coverage state and the weak coverage state,

the interferer state and the non-interferer state,

the good quality state and the bad quality state,

and the cell provided by the radio access node is assigned to one or more of the at least one intermediate state.

23. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the overshooting analysis comprises:

determining whether a normalized overshoot counter for the cell exceeds a first threshold;

determining whether a fraction of measurement reports served by the cell exceeds a threshold minimum fraction of traffic that a cell must carry to be an overshooter; and

determining that the cell is an overshooter when the normalized overshoot counter for the cell exceeds the first threshold and the fraction of measurement reports served by the cell exceeds the threshold minimum fraction of traffic.