Cellular telecommunications network
View Patent ↗This disclosure provides a method of calculating a distance between a first and second base station in a cellular communications network, and a base station for performing said method, the method including a first base station periodically measuring a power of received signals from a second base station; the first base station identifying a first and second most frequent power of received signals in the periodic measurements; and the first base station determining a distance to a second base station based on the identified first and second most frequent power.
1. A method of calculating a distance between a first base station and a second base station in a cellular communications network, the method comprising:
by the first base station:
periodically measuring a power of received signals from the second base station;
identifying a first most frequent power and a second most frequent power of received signals in the periodic measurements; and
determining a distance to the second base station based on:
the identified first most frequent power and second most frequent power,
an assumed path loss model, and
a ratio of transmission power at a first transmission setting to transmission power at a second transmission setting of the second base station.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein identifying the first most frequent power and the second most frequent power includes:
defining a series of power ranges; and
allocating each measured power of received signals to one of the series of power ranges, wherein the first most frequent power and the second most frequent power are a first power range and a second power range having the most allocations.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second base station operates with the first transmission setting for a greater time than the second transmission setting.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 any, wherein the first base station and the second base station are part of a plurality of base stations.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first base station is a Home evolved Node B.
6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program containing computer-executable code which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of claim 1 .
7. A first base station comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive signals from a second base station;
memory; and
a processor configured to:
measure a power of the received signals and store the measurement in memory;
identify a first most frequency power and a second most frequent power of the received signals; and
determine a distance to the second base station based on:
the identified first most frequent power and second most frequent power,
an assumed path loss model, and
a ratio of transmission power at a first transmission setting to transmission power at a second transmission setting of the second base station.
8. The first base station as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
define a series of power ranges;
allocate each power measurement to one of the series of power ranges,
wherein the first most frequent power and the second most frequent power are a first power range and a second power range having the most allocations.
9. The first base station as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the second base station operates with the first transmission setting for a greater time than the second transmission setting.
10. The first base station as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the first base station is a Home evolved Node B.
11. A cellular network comprising the first base station of claim 7 .
12. The cellular network as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the first base station and the second base station are ones of a plurality of base stations.