Cell ID Management in Multi-vendor and Multi-RAT Heterogeneous Networks
01 January 2019
With the ever increasing cell densities in wireless networks, it is desired to enable more self-X features, such as self-configuration. Setting the network parameters in an autonomous manner is not only more time efficient but also increases network performance and reduces the probability of a human error. Among numerous network settings, one of the key parameters that requires such autonomous configuration is the cell ID. It is used during fundamental procedures, such as network access, decoding, or handover, and therefore, its configuration is crucial for network operation. A complete cell ID management framework together with a centralized method for cell ID assignment is presented in this paper. It is not only applicable to multiple mobile standards, but is also compatible with multi-vendor equipment, since it is based on the TR-069 management protocol. The proposed approach mitigates cell ID conflicts when there is a high level of reuse. Moreover, in the 4G case it also prevents neighbours from using different cell identifiers but with the same reference signal pattern, which avoids significant interference. The proposed method is evaluated in an enterprise small cell scenario, and in comparison with the baseline 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) approach, significant reductions of assignment conflicts are demonstrated.