CN107710816B

CN107710816B - Load balancing method and device

Info

Publication number: CN107710816B
Application number: CN201580081362.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄黎
Original assignee: Zhuji Yihe Project Investment Co ltd
Current assignee: Zhuji yashijie Knitting Co.,Ltd.
Priority date: 2015-07-31
Filing date: 2015-07-31
Publication date: 2020-07-07
Anticipated expiration: 2035-07-31
Also published as: CN107710816A; WO2017020192A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a load balancing method and a device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, sending a dual-connection instruction to the UE, wherein the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection area is an extended area obtained by extending the coverage area of the target small base station; and determining the position information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and distributing a service base station for the UE according to the position information. The embodiment of the invention can flexibly and quickly realize the adjustment of the load in the heterogeneous network, balance the load in the heterogeneous network and improve the utilization rate of the small base station.

Description

Load balancing method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a load balancing method and apparatus.

Background

With the rapid development of mobile broadband services, the data traffic of Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile communication networks is rapidly increasing. To provide greater wireless communication traffic, one of the main solutions is to deploy more dense networks, i.e., to increase the number and density of wireless base station deployments. A typical wireless cellular network mainly includes macro base stations with the same level of transmission power and coverage, but when the deployment density of the macro base stations increases to a certain degree, it may be difficult to install new macro base stations. At this time, some small base Stations (LPNs) which are easier to install may be deployed in the coverage area of the macro base station, and such a Network in which the macro base station and the small base stations are mixed is called a Heterogeneous Network (HetNet).

The HetNet network increases the network capacity and the coverage area, but because the macro base station has large transmitting power and high installation position, and the small base station has small transmitting power and low installation position, the number of user equipment in the coverage area of the small base station is much smaller than that of the macro base station, and the time of the small base station in idle and low load state is much longer, so that the load imbalance between the macro base station and the small base station is caused, and the utilization rate of the small base station is low.

To address The problem of macro and small base station load imbalance in LTE HetNet networks, The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) organization introduced Cell Range Extension (CRE) technology. The CRE technology is used for properly expanding the coverage area of the small base station to obtain an expanded area, and then switching the user equipment originally connected to the macro base station in the expanded area from the macro base station to the small base station through a switching process, so that the number of users served by the macro base station and the small base station is more balanced, and the utilization rate of the small base station is improved. However, CRE technology suffers from the following disadvantages: firstly, extra overhead exists in the handover process and the throughput of the user equipment in the extended area is affected in the handover process; secondly, for the user equipment of the handover base station in the extended area, the farther away from the small base station and the user equipment close to the macro base station, the stronger the interference signal and the weaker the useful signal are, and when the user equipment exceeds a certain distance from the small base station, an abnormal condition that the interference signal is stronger than the useful signal occurs, so that the wireless transmission performance of the user equipment in the extended area is very poor, and even the user equipment cannot work, at this time, the limit of the extended area is reached, when the CRE technology reaches the limit of the extended area, the extended area is still not large enough, the user equipment which can be included is still less, and the imbalance between the macro base station and the small base station is improved, but the imbalance is still serious; thirdly, after the user equipment in the extended area is switched to the small base station, the connection between the user equipment and the macro base station is interrupted, so that the load dynamic adjustment between the macro base station and the small base station is high in cost and inflexible.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a load balancing method and device, which can flexibly and quickly realize the adjustment of loads in a heterogeneous network, balance the loads in the heterogeneous network and improve the utilization rate of a small base station.

A first aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides a load balancing method, including:

when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, sending a dual-connection instruction to the UE, wherein the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection area is an extended area obtained by extending the coverage area of the target small base station;

and determining the position information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and distributing a service base station for the UE according to the position information.

In a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the present invention, before the step of sending a dual connectivity instruction to a user equipment UE when the UE is in a same-frequency dual connectivity area, the method further includes:

expanding a coverage area of a target small base station associated with a macro base station, so that the expanded coverage area of the target small base station comprises an original coverage area and a same-frequency dual-connection area, wherein the signal intensity of the target small base station on a boundary line of the original coverage area is equal to that of the macro base station, and the signal intensity of the target small base station in the same-frequency dual-connection area is greater than a preset threshold value;

when the fact that User Equipment (UE) is connected to the macro base station is known, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is obtained;

judging whether the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection area or not according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE;

the same-frequency dual-connection area comprises a first extension area and a second extension area, the first extension area is an area close to an original coverage area of the target small base station, the second extension area is an area far away from the original coverage area of the target small base station, and an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extension area is greater than an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extension area.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a second possible implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, the expanding the coverage area of the target small base station associated with the macro base station includes:

counting the signal strength of a target small base station which is associated with a macro base station and is measured by all user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station;

and expanding the coverage area of the target small base station according to the signal strength of the target small base station measured by all the user equipment.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a third possible implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, before the step of expanding the coverage area of the target small base station associated with the macro base station, the method further includes:

acquiring a coverage area of a macro base station, and detecting whether a small base station exists in the coverage area of the macro base station;

and when the detection result is yes, determining the small base station as a target small base station associated with the macro base station.

With reference to the first to third possible implementation manners of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the determining, according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, whether the UE is in a co-frequency dual connectivity area includes:

judging whether the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold value;

when the judgment result is yes, judging whether the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is smaller than the signal intensity on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small base station;

and when the judgment result is yes, determining that the UE is in the same-frequency dual-connection area.

With reference to the first to fourth possible implementation manners of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the sending a dual connectivity instruction to the UE includes:

configuring a same-frequency carrier group for user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region according to a carrier sent by the macro base station, wherein the same-frequency carrier group comprises a same-frequency main cell and a same-frequency auxiliary cell, the same-frequency main cell is the macro base station, and the same-frequency auxiliary cell is the target cell;

and sending a dual-connection instruction to the co-frequency carrier group of the UE, wherein the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is connected to the macro base station and the target small base station at the same time, and the connection connected to the macro base station is used as a main connection and the connection connected to the target small base station is used as an auxiliary connection.

With reference to the first to fifth possible implementation manners of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the determining, according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, location information of the UE, and allocating a serving base station to the UE according to the location information includes:

acquiring a bias parameter of the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE;

when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extended area, determining that the UE is located in the first extended area, and allocating the target small cell as a serving base station for the UE;

when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second expansion area, determining that the UE is located in the second expansion area, and allocating the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as serving base stations.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the present embodiment, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the present embodiment, the allocating the target small cell to the UE as a serving base station includes:

controlling the target small base station to provide a control channel for the UE;

and controlling the target small base station to schedule the uplink service and the downlink service of the UE.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the present invention, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the present invention, the allocating, to the UE, the macro base station and the target small base station as serving base stations includes:

controlling the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE;

and controlling the macro base station to schedule the downlink service of the UE, and controlling the target small base station to schedule the uplink service of the UE.

With reference to the first to eighth possible implementation manners of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, after the step of allocating a serving base station to the UE according to the location information, the method further includes:

monitoring the load capacity of the macro base station and the target small base station;

and when the load of the macro base station is higher than a first preset threshold value or the load of the target small base station is higher than a second preset threshold value, re-allocating a serving base station for the UE.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides another load balancing method, including:

when a dual-connection instruction sent by a load balancing device is received, establishing connection between a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station;

measuring the signal intensity of the target small base station, and feeding back the measured signal intensity of the target small base station to the load balancing device, so that the load balancing device determines the position information of the equipment and distributes a service base station to the equipment according to the position information;

and acquiring the position information determined by the load balancing device, and using the service base station distributed by the load balancing device.

In a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the location information includes a first extended area or a second extended area;

the serving base station assigned using the load balancing apparatus includes:

when the UE is located in the first extension area, receiving uplink service and downlink service scheduled by the target small cell by using a control channel provided by the target small cell;

and when the UE is located in the second extension area, receiving downlink services scheduled by the macro base station and uplink services scheduled by the target small base station by using a control channel provided by the macro base station.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a load balancing apparatus, including:

the UE comprises an instruction sending unit, an instruction receiving unit and a processing unit, wherein the instruction sending unit is used for sending a dual-connection instruction to the UE when the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection area is an expansion area obtained by expanding the coverage area of the target small base station;

and the base station distribution unit is used for determining the position information of the UE according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE and distributing a service base station for the UE according to the position information.

In a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes:

the area expanding unit is used for expanding the coverage area of a target small base station associated with a macro base station so that the expanded coverage area of the target small base station comprises an original coverage area and a same-frequency dual-connection area, the signal intensity of the target small base station on the boundary line of the original coverage area is equal to the signal intensity of the macro base station, and the signal intensity of the target small base station in the same-frequency dual-connection area is greater than a preset threshold value;

the intensity obtaining unit is used for obtaining the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE when the fact that the UE is connected to the macro base station is known;

the area judgment unit is used for judging whether the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection area or not according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE;

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a second possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the area expanding unit is specifically configured to count signal strengths of the target small cell measured by all user equipments in a coverage area of the macro base station, and expand the coverage area of the target small cell according to the signal strengths of the target small cell measured by all the user equipments.

With reference to the first and second possible implementation manners of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a third possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the area determination unit includes:

a first determining unit, configured to determine whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold;

a second judging unit, configured to, when the result of the judgment by the first judging unit is yes, judge whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the signal strength on the original coverage area boundary line of the target small cell;

and a relationship determining unit, configured to determine that the UE is in the same-frequency dual-connection region when the result of the determination by the second determining unit is yes.

With reference to the first to third possible implementation manners of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the instruction sending unit includes:

a common-frequency configuration unit, configured to configure a common-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the common-frequency dual-connection region according to the carrier sent by the macro base station, where the common-frequency carrier group includes a common-frequency primary cell and a common-frequency secondary cell, the common-frequency primary cell is the macro base station, and the common-frequency secondary cell is the target cell;

a connection indicating unit, configured to send a dual connection instruction to a co-frequency carrier group of the UE, where the dual connection instruction is used to indicate that the UE is connected to the macro base station and the target small base station simultaneously, and use a connection connected to the macro base station as a primary connection and a connection connected to the target small base station as a secondary connection.

With reference to the first to fourth possible implementation manners of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the base station allocating unit includes:

a parameter obtaining unit, configured to obtain a bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE;

a first allocation unit, configured to determine that the UE is located in the first extension area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extension area, and allocate the target small cell to the UE as a serving base station;

a second allocating unit, configured to determine that the UE is located in the second expansion area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second expansion area, and allocate the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as a serving base station.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the first allocating unit includes:

a first control unit, configured to control the target small cell to provide a control channel for the UE;

and the second control unit is used for controlling the target small base station to schedule the uplink service and the downlink service of the UE.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the second allocating unit includes:

a third control unit, configured to control the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE;

and the fourth control unit is used for controlling the macro base station to schedule the downlink service of the UE and controlling the target small base station to schedule the uplink service of the UE.

With reference to the first to seventh possible implementation manners of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes:

a load amount monitoring unit, configured to monitor load amounts of the macro base station and the target small base station;

and the reallocation unit is used for reallocating the serving base station for the UE when the load of the macro base station is higher than a first preset threshold value or the load of the target small base station is higher than a second preset threshold value.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a user equipment, including:

the connection unit is used for establishing connection between the macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station when receiving a dual-connection instruction sent by a load balancing device;

the measuring unit is used for measuring the signal strength of the target small base station and feeding the measured signal strength of the target small base station back to the load balancing device, so that the load balancing device determines the position information of the equipment and distributes a service base station for the equipment according to the position information;

and the using unit is used for acquiring the position information determined by the load balancing device and using the service base station distributed by the load balancing device.

In a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the location information includes a first extended area or a second extended area; the using unit is specifically configured to receive, when the UE is located in the first extension area, the uplink service and the downlink service scheduled by the target small cell, using a control channel provided by the target small cell; and when the UE is located in the second extension area, receiving downlink services scheduled by the macro base station and uplink services scheduled by the target small base station by using a control channel provided by the macro base station.

In the embodiment of the invention, when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, a dual-connection instruction is sent to the UE, the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, the same-frequency dual-connection area is an expansion area obtained by expanding the coverage area of the target small base station, then the position information of the UE is determined according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE, and a service base station is distributed to the UE according to the position information, so that the regulation of loads in a heterogeneous network is flexibly and quickly realized, the loads in the heterogeneous network are balanced, the coverage area of the small base station is further expanded, and the utilization rate of the small base station is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a network layout diagram of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of another load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of the implementation of step S204 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of an instruction issue unit according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 6;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station allocating unit provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 6;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention provides a load balancing method and a load balancing device, which can be applied to a load regulation scene in a heterogeneous network, for example, when a load balancing device judges that User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, a dual-connection instruction is sent to the UE, the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, the same-frequency dual-connection area is an extended area obtained by extending a coverage area of the target small base station, then the load balancing device determines position information of the UE according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE, and distributes a service base station to the UE according to the position information. The embodiment of the invention can make full use of the resources of the macro base station and the small base station in the heterogeneous network, and flexibly and quickly realize the adjustment of the load in the heterogeneous network, so that the load in the heterogeneous network reaches a balanced state, and the utilization rate of the small base station is improved.

The load balancing device in the embodiment of the invention can be deployed at a certain position between the macro base station and the small base station, so that the load balancing device can conveniently adjust the load in the heterogeneous network. The load balancing device can also be deployed in a macro base station of the heterogeneous network, and the macro base station serves a service distribution base station for the user equipment in the coverage area, so that the load in the heterogeneous network reaches a balanced state. The load balancing device can also be deployed in a small base station of the heterogeneous network, and the small base station distributes a service base station for the user equipment in the coverage area of the associated macro base station, so that the load in the heterogeneous network reaches a balanced state. In order to facilitate the load balancing device to adjust the load in the heterogeneous network, the load balancing device is preferably deployed in a macro base station of the heterogeneous network.

The user equipment in the embodiment of the present invention may include, but is not limited to, a mobile terminal with a mobile communication function, such as a mobile phone, a PAD (tablet computer), and a smart wearable device. It should be noted that, the user equipment in the embodiment of the present invention needs to configure a same frequency carrier, and implement a dual connectivity function, so that the user equipment in the same frequency dual connectivity area can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the small base station associated with the macro base station.

The following describes the load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention in detail with reference to fig. 1 to 4.

Please refer to fig. 1, which is a network layout diagram of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the diagram includes a macro base station, a small base station, an area a, an area B, an area C, and an area D. It should be noted that the network layout shown in fig. 1 is a part of a heterogeneous network, where the heterogeneous network includes at least one macro base station and at least one small base station, and a coverage area of each macro base station in the at least one macro base station includes at least one small base station. The coverage area of a small base station is much smaller than that of a macro base station, and the small base station is located within the coverage area of the associated macro base station, but the user equipment within the coverage area of the small base station is typically controlled by the small base station and not by the macro base station. The small base stations may include, but are not limited to, micro base stations, pico base stations, home base stations, enterprise base stations, and other base stations with a small coverage area.

The area B in fig. 1 is the original coverage area of the small base station, the area C and the area D are areas where the small base station is extended, the area C is close to the small base station, the area D is outside the area C, the area a is the area covered by the macro base station after the small base station is extended, and the area a is far from the small base station. The macro base station and the small base station in the heterogeneous network both send signals or data outwards in the form of carriers, so that the coverage areas of the macro base station and the small base station can be considered as circular or elliptical ideally, but in practical application, the existence of a high building may affect the signal strength of the macro base station and the small base station. Note that, at the B-region boundary, the signal strength of the small base station is equal to the signal strength of the macro base station. The user equipments in the area C and the area D can detect the signal strength of the small cell but are weaker than the signal strength of the small cell detected by the user equipments in the area B, and the user equipments in the area a may not detect the signal strength of the small cell.

When the CRE technology of the embodiment of the invention and the background technology is not applied, the areas outside the B area belong to the coverage area of the macro base station. In the CRE technology, the extended area of the small base station corresponds to the area C in the drawing, and as the coverage area of the small base station is enlarged, the small base station is further away from the small base station and is further close to the macro base station, the wireless transmission performance of the user equipment in the area C becomes very poor, so that the extended area of the small base station is limited and cannot be extended, the coverage area of the small base station is still too small, the number of the user equipment can still be small, and the imbalance between the loads of the macro base station and the small base station is improved, but the imbalance between the loads is still serious. Compared with the CRE technology, the embodiment of the invention further expands the expansion area of the small base station, so that the expansion area of the small base station comprises a C area and a D area, and the user equipment in the two areas can be connected to the macro base station and the small base station at the same time, and the wireless transmission performance will not be affected. It should be noted that the specific ranges of the C region and the D region are determined by a small cell Signal strength offset parameter issued by an operator managing the macro base station and the small cell, and optionally, the offset parameter is Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the small cell. For example, configuring the bias parameter of the C region to be-10 dB and the bias parameter of the D region to be-20 dB indicates that the RSRP of the small base station continues to expand outward by-10 dB and-20 dB from the boundary line of the B region, i.e., the RSRP in the C region is 10dB less than that in the B region and the RSRP in the D region is 20dB less than that in the B region. It should be noted that the signal strength of the small cell is different from the signal strength offset parameter of the small cell, and the signal strength of the small cell detected by the user equipment in the area C may be different, but the signal strength offset parameter of the small cell in the area C is the same.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes step S101 and step S102.

S101, when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, a dual-connection instruction is sent to the UE.

Optionally, when the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection region, the load balancing apparatus sends a dual-connection instruction to the UE, where the dual-connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to simultaneously connect to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection region is an extension region obtained by extending a coverage region of the target small base station. And when the UE is located in the same-frequency dual-connection area, the load balancing device sends a dual-connection instruction to the same-frequency carrier group of the UE to indicate that the UE is connected to the macro base station and the target small base station simultaneously. The user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station according to the dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing device, and it can be understood that the user equipment configured with the same-frequency carrier group is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station by using the carrier sent by the macro base station, so that the condition that the useful signal of the target small base station is influenced by the interference signal of the macro base station in the prior art can be effectively avoided.

Optionally, the same-frequency dual-connection area is regarded as a same-frequency cell, the user equipment in the same-frequency cell may be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target cell, the macro base station is used as a primary cell in the same-frequency cell, and the target cell is used as an auxiliary cell of the same-frequency cell, so that the connection connected to the macro base station is a primary connection, and the connection connected to the target cell is an auxiliary connection.

The dual connectivity instruction adopts an instruction existing in carrier aggregation organized by The 3rd generation partnership Project (3 GPP), that is, The instruction existing in carrier aggregation is also applied to The load balancing apparatus.

The target small base station is a small base station in the coverage area of the macro base station. In the heterogeneous network, at least one macro base station and at least one small base station are included, the small base station included in the coverage area of the macro base station is taken as the small base station associated with the macro base station, and since more than one small base station may be included in the coverage area of the macro base station, for convenience of understanding, in the embodiment of the present invention, one small base station is selected from the small base stations in the coverage area of the macro base station to be introduced as the target small base station, and the analogy can be performed according to the embodiment of the present invention when there are multiple associated small base stations.

Before the load balancing device sends the dual connection instruction, it needs to determine whether the UE is in the same-frequency dual connection area. The UE may measure the signal strength of the target small cell at any time in a moving process or in a stationary state, or may measure the signal strength of the macro base station. Since the target small cell is also included in the coverage of the macro base station, and the coverage of the macro base station is larger, and the accuracy of determining the location of the UE according to the signal strength of the macro base station is lower, the load balancing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention determines which area in fig. 1 the UE belongs to according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE. Specifically, when the UE belongs to the area a, the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is weak and may be zero; when the UE belongs to a C area or a D area, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is stronger than that of the A area and is larger than a preset threshold value, the preset threshold value is the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by user equipment on a boundary line of the D area, a specific numerical value is set by a network manager of the load balancing device, and the signal intensity of the target small base station is smaller than that of the macro base station; and when the UE belongs to the B area, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is greater than or equal to the signal intensity of the macro base station.

The same-frequency dual-connection area corresponds to the area C and the area D in fig. 1 and is an extension area of the target small base station. The UE in the same-frequency dual-connection region may measure both the signal intensity of the target small base station and the signal intensity of the macro base station, where the signal intensity of the macro base station in the same-frequency dual-connection region is usually higher than the signal intensity of the target small base station, but because there are many user equipments in the coverage of the macro base station, if the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection region are all connected to the macro base station to use resources on the macro base station, bandwidth of each user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region may be smaller, which is not beneficial to data transmission, and the target small base station may be in an idle state, which not only causes an excess load of the macro base station, but also affects user experience in the same-frequency dual-connection region. Therefore, the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area in the embodiment of the present invention may be connected to both the macro base station and the target small base station, and the load balancing apparatus allocates the macro base station and/or the target small base station to the user equipment as the serving base station according to the specific location of the user equipment, so that the load of the macro base station is not burdened, and the user experience is not affected.

Generally, an area covered by one macro base station can be regarded as a cell, the macro base station provides services of voice, data and the like to user equipment in the cell in the form of carriers, the user equipment in the cell uses the carriers with the same carrier frequency, and only one carrier usually exists in the cell. Even if at least one small base station exists in the macro base station, the carrier frequency used by the user equipment in the coverage area of the small base stations is equal to the carrier frequency transmitted by the macro base station. The carrier frequencies used by adjacent cells are different.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the load balancing device configures an intra-frequency Carrier group for the user equipment in the intra-frequency dual-connection region, that is, the load balancing device processes the Carrier transmitted in the macro base station by using an Aggregation technology similar to Carrier Aggregation (CA), so that the user equipment configured with the intra-frequency Carrier group can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station. The CA technology is a technology for increasing transmission bandwidth introduced by the LTE system, and is used for meeting the requirements of single-user peak rate and system capacity improvement. The CA technology can aggregate 2-5 LTE Component carriers (Component carriers, CCs), thereby realizing the maximum transmission bandwidth of 100MHz and effectively improving the uplink and downlink transmission rate. Generally, carrier frequencies of component carriers are not the same in the CA technology. With the CA technology, each ue uses an independent Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) entity on each carrier, and each transport block can only be mapped to a specific carrier. The Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) on each carrier is independent from each other, and the PDCCH of each carrier is used to allocate resources to the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of each carrier. The carrier indication domain can also be used for scheduling uplink and downlink resource allocation of a plurality of carriers by using a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) on one carrier, thereby realizing high-speed transmission.

The aggregation technology in the embodiment of the present invention is different from the CA technology in that the CA technology aggregates more than 2 carriers with different frequencies to enable the user equipment to obtain a larger bandwidth, and the aggregation technology in the embodiment of the present invention is to simultaneously connect to the macro base station and the target small base station by using 1 carrier sent by the macro base station. By utilizing the aggregation technology in the embodiment of the invention, the macro base station and/or the target small base station can provide scheduling service for the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area.

S102, determining the position information of the UE according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE, and distributing a service base station for the UE according to the position information.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus determines the location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE. Since the same-frequency dual-connection area includes the C area and the D area in fig. 1, it is unclear whether the UE is in the C area or the D area, and the load balancing apparatus has different processing manners for the UE in the C area and the D area, the load balancing apparatus needs to determine the location information of the UE first.

Optionally, the load balancing device obtains, according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and determines whether the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is the same as the offset parameter of the C region or the offset parameter of the D region. When the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is the same as that of a C area, determining that the UE is located in the C area; and when the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is the same as that of the D area, determining that the UE is located in the D area.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus allocates a serving base station to the UE according to the location information. A cellular communication system transmits different types of information including service information and various control information, and thus arranges corresponding logical channels on physical channels. Some of these logical channels are used in the call connection phase, some are used in the communication process, and some are used for the whole time of system operation. Logical channels are divided into two main categories, traffic channels and control channels. The control channel is a channel for transmitting signaling information and short packet data.

When the UE is located in a C area, the UE uses a control channel provided by the target small base station due to the fact that the UE is close to the target small base station; when the UE is located in the D area, the UE is closer to the macro base station and farther from the target small base station in comparison, so the UE uses the control channel provided by the macro base station.

Because the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area is connected to the macro base station and the target small base station at the same time, according to the CA technology, uplink scheduling and downlink scheduling of the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area can be performed independently without being bound together. Optionally, when the UE is located in the area C, because the UE is close to the target small cell and the target small cell has a low load and a low utilization rate, both uplink traffic and downlink traffic of the UE are provided by the target small cell for scheduling service. When the UE is located in the D area, because the UE is closer to the macro base station and farther from the target small base station, and for the UE, the requirements of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed are generally higher than those of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed, and the bandwidth of the macro base station is generally larger than that of the small base station, the downlink service of the UE is provided with the scheduling service by the macro base station, and the uplink service of the UE is provided with the scheduling service by the target small base station, which can ensure the requirements of the user equipment on the bandwidth, balance the load in the heterogeneous network, and avoid the influence of an interference signal of the macro base station on a useful signal of the small base station.

Referring to fig. 3, a flowchart of another load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes steps S201 to S215.

S201, counting the signal intensity of a target small base station which is associated with the macro base station and is measured by all user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus counts signal strengths of target small base stations associated with the macro base station measured by all user equipment in a coverage area of the macro base station. Before the load balancing apparatus performs step S201, the load balancing apparatus needs to determine a coverage area of a macro base station in the heterogeneous network, where the coverage area of the macro base station is usually a circle with a radius of 10km, and detect whether a small base station exists in the coverage area of the macro base station. In a heterogeneous network, including at least one macro base station and at least one small cell, an embodiment of the present invention selects a macro base station from at least one macro base station for introduction. And if the small base station exists in the coverage area of the macro base station, taking the small base station in the coverage area of the macro base station as a target small base station associated with the macro base station. In practical application, more than one small base station may be in the coverage area of the macro base station, for convenience of understanding, in the embodiment of the present invention, one small base station is selected from the small base stations in the coverage area of the macro base station as a target small base station for introduction, and the analogy can be performed according to the embodiment of the present invention when there are multiple associated small base stations.

Since the coverage area of the macro base station is large and the target small base station is also located within the coverage area of the macro base station, the load balancing apparatus counts the signal strength of the target small base station measured by all user equipments in an area except the original coverage area of the target small base station within the coverage area of the macro base station, that is, the signal strength of the target small base station measured by all user equipments in an area a, an area C and an area D in fig. 1.

S202, expanding the coverage area of the target small base station according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by all the user equipment, so that the expanded coverage area of the target small base station comprises an original coverage area and a same-frequency dual-connection area.

Optionally, after determining the target small cell, the load balancing apparatus acquires an original coverage area of the target small cell, where the original coverage area of the target small cell corresponds to a B area in fig. 1. The signal strength of the target small base station measured by the user equipment in the original coverage area of the target small base station is higher than that of the macro base station, and the signal strength of the target small base station is equal to that of the macro base station on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small base station.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus expands the coverage area of the target small cell according to the number limit strength of the target small cell measured by all the user equipments, so that some user equipments located in the coverage area of the macro base station can also use the information provided by the target small cell, thereby improving the utilization rate of the target small cell. The extended area is close to the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small base station and is located outside the original coverage area of the target small base station, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the user equipment in the extended area is greater than a preset threshold value, the preset threshold value is the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the user equipment on the boundary line of the area D, and a specific numerical value is set by a network manager of the load balancing device. In the prior art, the CRE technology is adopted to expand the target small base station, but the area expanded by adopting the CRE technology is limited, but the embodiment of the invention can expand the coverage area of the small base station to the area capable of receiving the signal of the target small base station, thereby improving the coverage area of the target small base station to the maximum extent.

Optionally, the load balancing device determines the extension area as a same-frequency dual-connection area, where the same-frequency dual-connection area includes a first extension area and a second extension area. Wherein the first extension area is an area close to the original coverage area, and corresponds to an area C in fig. 1. The second extension area is an area far from the original coverage area, and corresponds to an area D in fig. 1. The bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extended area is larger than the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extended area.

Optionally, the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell is reference signal received power RSRP of the target small cell. For example, configuring the bias parameter of the C region to be-10 dB, and the bias parameter of the D region to be-20 dB, which means that the RSRP of the target small base station continues to expand outward by-10 dB and-20 dB from the boundary line of the B region, that is, the RSRP in the C region is 10dB less than that in the B region, and the RSRP in the D region is 20dB less than that in the B region. It should be noted that the signal strength of the target small cell is different from the signal strength offset parameter of the target small cell, and the signal strength of the target small cell detected by the user equipment in the area C may be different, but the signal strength offset parameter of the target small cell in the area C is the same.

S203, when it is known that the UE is connected to the macro base station, acquiring the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE.

Optionally, the load balancing device monitors the connection condition of the UE in the coverage area of the macro base station in real time, and when it is known that the UE is connected to the macro base station, obtains the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, so that the load balancing device can determine in which area in fig. 1 the UE is located.

S204, judging whether the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection area according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus determines whether the UE belongs to a co-frequency dual-connection region according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, where the co-frequency dual-connection region is an extension region obtained by extending a coverage region of the target small cell. Wherein the same-frequency dual-connection region corresponds to a region C and a region D in fig. 1. The UE in the same-frequency dual-connection region may measure both the signal intensity of the target small base station and the signal intensity of the macro base station, where the signal intensity of the macro base station in the same-frequency dual-connection region is usually higher than the signal intensity of the target small base station, but because there are many user equipments in the coverage of the macro base station, if the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection region are all connected to the macro base station to use resources on the macro base station, bandwidth of each user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region may be smaller, which is not beneficial to data transmission, and the target small base station may be in an idle state, which not only causes an excess load of the macro base station, but also affects user experience in the same-frequency dual-connection region. Therefore, the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area in the embodiment of the present invention may be connected to both the macro base station and the target small base station, and the load balancing apparatus allocates the macro base station and/or the target small base station to the user equipment as the serving base station according to the specific location of the user equipment, so that the load of the macro base station is not burdened, and the user experience is not affected. The specific implementation process of step S204 can be seen in the flowchart shown in fig. 4.

Referring to fig. 4, which is a schematic flowchart of the implementation of step S204 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, step S204 may include steps S301 to S304.

S301, judging whether the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold value.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus first determines whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold. When the result of the determination in step S301 is yes, it can be understood that the UE can measure the signal strength of the target small cell and is greater than the preset threshold; when the result of the determination in step S302 is negative, it can be understood that the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the preset threshold or the signal strength of the target small cell is not measured by the UE, that is, the UE is located in the area a in fig. 1 at this time.

S302, if the result of the determination is yes, determining whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the signal strength on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell.

Optionally, when the result of the determination in step S301 is yes, it may be understood that the UE is capable of measuring the signal strength of the target small cell and is greater than the preset threshold, so that the load balancing apparatus determines again whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is less than the signal strength on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell, and further determines whether the UE is located in a B area or an extended area outside the B area in fig. 1.

S303, when the judgment result is yes, determining that the UE belongs to the same-frequency dual-connection area.

Optionally, when the result of the determination performed in step S302 is yes, it may be understood that the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the signal intensity on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell, and it is determined that the UE belongs to the same-frequency dual-connection area, where the same-frequency dual-connection area corresponds to the area C and the area D in fig. 1.

S304, when the judgment result is negative, determining that the UE belongs to the original coverage area of the target small base station.

Alternatively, when the result of performing the determination in step S302 is negative, it can be understood that the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is equal to or greater than the signal strength on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell, and it is determined that the UE belongs to the original coverage area of the target small cell, which corresponds to the area B in fig. 1.

S205, when the UE is in the same-frequency dual-connection area, sending a dual-connection instruction to the UE.

Optionally, when the result of the determination in the step S204 is yes, that is, the UE belongs to the same-frequency dual-connection region, the load balancing apparatus configures a same-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region according to the carrier sent by the macro base station, and sends a dual-connection instruction to the same-frequency carrier group of the UE, where the dual-connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to connect to the macro base station and the target small base station simultaneously. The same-frequency carrier group comprises a same-frequency main cell and a same-frequency auxiliary cell, the same-frequency main cell is the macro base station, and the same-frequency auxiliary cell is the target small base station. The user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station according to the dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing device, and it can be understood that the user equipment configured with the same-frequency carrier group is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station by using the carrier sent by the macro base station, so that the condition that the useful signal of the target small base station is influenced by the interference signal of the macro base station in the prior art can be effectively avoided.

The dual connection instruction adopts an existing instruction of carrier aggregation of 3GPP organization, that is, the existing instruction of carrier aggregation is also applied to the load balancing device.

S206, obtaining the bias parameter of the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus obtains a bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, so as to determine whether the UE is in the C region or the D region in fig. 1. The load balancing apparatus may directly detect the offset parameter, and compare the detected offset parameter with the offset parameters of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extension area and the second extension area to determine in which area the UE is.

S207, when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first expansion area, determining that the UE is located in the first expansion area, and allocating the target small cell as a serving base station for the UE.

Optionally, when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extended area, it is determined that the UE is located in the first extended area, which corresponds to area C in fig. 1.

Optionally, when the UE is located in the first extension area, the target small cell is allocated to the UE as a serving base station because the UE is close to the target small cell. And the target small base station provides a control channel, uplink service and downlink service for the user equipment in the first expansion area.

S208, when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second expansion area, determining that the UE is located in the second expansion area, and allocating the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as serving base stations.

Optionally, when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the second extended area, it is determined that the UE is located in the second extended area, which corresponds to the area D in fig. 1.

Optionally, when the UE is located in the second expansion area, the load balancing apparatus allocates the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as serving base stations. The second extended area is closer to the macro base station than the first extended area, and is farther from the target small base station, so that the control channel of the macro base station is provided for the UE. For the user equipment, the requirements of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed are generally higher than those of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed, and the bandwidth of the macro base station is generally greater than that of the small base station, so the downlink service of the UE in the second expansion region is provided with the scheduling service by the macro base station, and the uplink service of the UE is provided with the scheduling service by the target small base station, which can ensure the requirements of the user equipment on the bandwidth, balance the load in the heterogeneous network, and avoid the influence of an interference signal of the macro base station on a useful signal of the small base station.

And S209, monitoring the load of the macro base station and the target small base station.

Optionally, since the macro base station and the small base station in the heterogeneous network are scheduled according to a specific Transmission Time Interval (TTI) in the LTE system, where the TTI is generally 1ms, the load balancing device in the embodiment of the present invention also schedules the macro base station and the target small base station according to the TTI in the LTE system. In the scheduling process, the load balancing device needs to monitor the load amounts of the macro base station and the target small base station in real time, so as to flexibly allocate a serving base station to the UE.

S210, when the load of the macro base station is higher than a first preset threshold value or the load of the target small base station is higher than a second preset threshold value, a serving base station is allocated to the UE again.

Optionally, when the number of the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection area is too large, the load of the macro base station may be higher than a first preset threshold or the load of the target small base station may be higher than a second preset threshold, and according to a mechanism that the LTE system schedules once per TTI, the load balancing device reallocates the serving base station for the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection area to balance the loads of the macro base station and the target small base station, and fully utilizes resources of the macro base station and the target small base station, thereby improving the utilization rate of the target small base station. The first preset threshold is the maximum load capacity for ensuring that the user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station can work normally, and the user experience may be affected when the first preset threshold is higher than the first preset threshold. The second preset threshold is a maximum load amount for ensuring that the user equipment in the coverage area of the target small cell can normally work, and usually the second preset threshold is smaller than the first preset threshold.

In the embodiment of the invention, when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, a dual-connection instruction is sent to the UE, the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, the same-frequency dual-connection area is an expansion area obtained by expanding the coverage area of the target small base station, then the position information of the UE is determined according to the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE, and a service base station is distributed to the UE according to the position information, so that the regulation of loads in a heterogeneous network is flexibly and rapidly realized, the loads in the heterogeneous network are balanced, the coverage area of the small base station is further expanded, the utilization rate of the small base station is improved, and meanwhile, the influence of interference signals of the macro base station on useful signals of.

Referring to fig. 5, a flowchart of another load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes steps S401 to S403.

S401, when a dual-connection instruction sent by a load balancing device is received, connection between a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station is established.

Optionally, the user equipment UE may receive the instruction sent by the load balancing device during a moving or stationary process. It should be noted that, the user equipment in the embodiment of the present invention configures a same-frequency carrier group, and when the user equipment is in a same-frequency dual-connection region, the user equipment can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station associated with the macro base station according to the dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing apparatus. When the UE receives a dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing device, the UE is indicated to be located in a same-frequency dual-connection area at the moment, and the UE establishes connection with the macro base station and connection with the target small base station at the same time according to the dual-connection instruction, so that the UE can be connected to the macro base station and the target small base station at the same time. In the prior art, the UE generally establishes a connection with the macro base station, and if the UE needs to be connected to the target small cell, the UE disconnects the connection with the macro base station and connects to the target small cell, so that an interference signal of the macro base station affects a useful signal of the target small cell, thereby affecting normal communication of the UE. The same-frequency dual-connection area is obtained by extending the coverage area of the target small cell, and includes a first extension area and a second extension area, which correspond to the area C and the area D in fig. 1, respectively.

S402, measuring the signal intensity of the target small cell, and feeding back the measured signal intensity of the target small cell to the load balancing device, so that the load balancing device determines the position information of the equipment and allocates a service base station for the equipment according to the position information.

Optionally, the UE measures the signal strength of the target small cell, and feeds back the measured signal strength of the target small cell to the load balancing apparatus, so that the load balancing apparatus determines the location information of the UE and allocates a serving base station to the UE according to the location information. Wherein the serving base station may be the target small base station, or may be the target small base station and the macro base station, and is determined according to the location information of the UE. At this time, the load balancing apparatus only determines that the UE is in the same-frequency dual-connection area, but it is unclear whether the UE is located in the area C or the area D in fig. 1, and therefore the load balancing apparatus needs to determine specific location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE.

S403, obtaining the location information determined by the load balancing apparatus, and using the serving base station allocated by the load balancing apparatus.

Optionally, the UE acquires the location information determined by the load balancing apparatus, and uses the serving base station allocated by the load balancing apparatus. Specifically, when the UE is located in the first extension area, that is, the area C in fig. 1, the serving base station is the target small cell, and at this time, the UE uses a control channel provided by the target small cell, and receives an uplink service and a downlink service scheduled by the target small cell; when the UE is located in the second extension area, that is, the area D in fig. 1, the serving base station is the macro base station and the target small base station, and the UE receives the downlink service scheduled by the macro base station and the uplink service scheduled by the target small base station by using a control channel provided by the macro base station.

In the embodiment of the invention, when a dual connection instruction sent by a load balancing device is received, connection between a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station is established, the signal intensity of the target small base station is measured, the measured signal intensity of the target small base station is fed back to the load balancing device, and finally position information determined by the load balancing device is obtained, and the service base station distributed by the load balancing device is used, so that the influence of base station switching on user equipment is reduced, and the utilization rate of the small base station is improved.

The following describes in detail a load balancing apparatus and a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to fig. 6 to 11. It should be noted that, the load balancing apparatuses shown in fig. 6 to 9 and 11 are used for executing the methods of the embodiments shown in fig. 2 and 3 of the present invention, and the user equipment shown in fig. 10 is used for executing the method of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 of the present invention, for convenience of description, only the parts related to the embodiments of the present invention are shown, and details of the specific technology are not disclosed, please refer to the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 3 and 5 of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 6, a schematic structural diagram of a load balancing apparatus provided in the present invention is shown, where the load balancing apparatus 10 may include: instruction transmission section 101 and base station assignment section 102.

The apparatus includes an instruction sending unit 101, configured to send a dual connectivity instruction to user equipment UE when the UE is in a same-frequency dual connectivity area.

Optionally, when the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection region, the instruction sending unit 101 sends a dual-connection instruction to the UE, where the dual-connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to simultaneously connect to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection region is an extension region obtained by extending a coverage region of the target small base station. The load balancing device 10 configures a same-frequency carrier group for the UE in the same-frequency dual-connection region according to the carrier sent by the macro base station, and when the UE is located in the same-frequency dual-connection region, the instruction sending unit 101 sends a dual-connection instruction to the same-frequency carrier group of the UE, indicating that the UE is connected to the macro base station and the target small base station at the same time. The user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station according to the dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing device, and it can be understood that the user equipment configured with the same-frequency carrier group is simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station by using the carrier sent by the macro base station, so that the condition that the useful signal of the target small base station is influenced by the interference signal of the macro base station in the prior art can be effectively avoided.

Before the instruction sending unit 101 sends the dual connectivity instruction, the load balancing apparatus 10 needs to determine whether the UE is in the same-frequency dual connectivity area. The UE may measure the signal strength of the target small cell at any time in a moving process or in a stationary state, or may measure the signal strength of the macro base station. Since the target small cell is also included in the coverage of the macro base station, and the coverage of the macro base station is larger, and the accuracy of determining the location of the UE according to the signal strength of the macro base station is lower, the load balancing apparatus 10 in the embodiment of the present invention determines which area in fig. 1 the UE belongs to according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE. Specifically, when the UE belongs to the area a, the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is weak and may be zero; when the UE belongs to a C area or a D area, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is stronger than that of the A area and is larger than a preset threshold value, the preset threshold value is the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by user equipment on a boundary line of the D area, a specific numerical value is set by a network manager of the load balancing device, and the signal intensity of the target small base station is smaller than that of the macro base station; and when the UE belongs to the B area, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the UE is greater than or equal to the signal intensity of the macro base station.

The same-frequency dual-connection area corresponds to the area C and the area D in fig. 1 and is an extension area of the target small base station. The UE in the same-frequency dual-connection region may measure both the signal intensity of the target small base station and the signal intensity of the macro base station, where the signal intensity of the macro base station in the same-frequency dual-connection region is usually higher than the signal intensity of the target small base station, but because there are many user equipments in the coverage of the macro base station, if the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection region are all connected to the macro base station to use resources on the macro base station, bandwidth of each user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region may be smaller, which is not beneficial to data transmission, and the target small base station may be in an idle state, which not only causes an excess load of the macro base station, but also affects user experience in the same-frequency dual-connection region. Therefore, the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area in the embodiment of the present invention may be connected to both the macro base station and the target small base station, and the load balancing apparatus 10 allocates the macro base station and/or the target small base station to the user equipment as the serving base station according to the specific location of the user equipment, so that the load of the macro base station is not burdened, and the user experience is not affected.

Please refer to fig. 7, which is a schematic structural diagram of the instruction issue unit according to the embodiment shown in fig. 6. The instruction sending unit 101 may include an on-channel configuration unit 1011 and a connection indication unit 1012.

A common-frequency configuration unit 1011, configured to configure a common-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the common-frequency dual-connection region according to the carrier sent by the macro base station, where the common-frequency carrier group includes a common-frequency primary cell and a common-frequency secondary cell, the common-frequency primary cell is the macro base station, and the common-frequency secondary cell is the target cell.

Optionally, the same-frequency configuration unit 1011 configures a same-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region according to the carrier sent by the macro base station, where the same-frequency carrier group includes a same-frequency primary cell and a same-frequency secondary cell, the same-frequency primary cell is the macro base station, and the same-frequency secondary cell is the target cell. In the embodiment of the invention, the coverage of the same-frequency carrier group is realized by utilizing the carriers sent by the macro base station twice, namely, the coverage of the same-frequency main cell and the same-frequency auxiliary cell is realized simultaneously, so that the user equipment configured with the same-frequency carrier group can be connected to the macro base station and the target small base station simultaneously.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the load balancing apparatus 10 configures a common-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the common-frequency dual-connection region, that is, the load balancing apparatus processes the carrier sent in the macro base station by using an aggregation technology similar to carrier aggregation CA, so that the user equipment configured with the common-frequency carrier group can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station. The CA technology is a technology for increasing transmission bandwidth introduced by the LTE system, and is used for meeting the requirements of single-user peak rate and system capacity improvement. The CA technology can aggregate 2-5 LTE member carriers together, thereby realizing the maximum transmission bandwidth of 100MHz and effectively improving the uplink and downlink transmission rate. Generally, carrier frequencies of component carriers are not the same in the CA technology. With the CA technique, each user equipment uses a separate HARQ entity on each carrier, and each transport block can only be mapped to a specific one of the carriers. The PDCCH on each carrier is independent, and the PDCCH of each carrier is used for allocating resources for the PDSCH and PUSCH channels of each carrier. The carrier indication domain can also be used for scheduling uplink and downlink resource allocation of a plurality of carriers by using a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) on one carrier, thereby realizing high-speed transmission.

A connection indicating unit 1012, configured to send a dual connection instruction to the co-frequency carrier group of the UE, where the dual connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to connect to the macro base station and the target small cell simultaneously, and use a connection connected to the macro base station as a primary connection and a connection connected to the target small cell as a secondary connection.

Optionally, the connection instructing unit 1012 sends a dual connection instruction to the co-frequency carrier group of the UE, where the dual connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to connect to the macro base station and the target small cell simultaneously, and use the connection connected to the macro base station as a primary connection and the connection connected to the target small cell as a secondary connection. It should be noted that, the user equipment in the intra-frequency dual-connection region is not handed over from the macro base station to the target small cell as in the CRE technique, but is connected to both the macro base station and the target small cell.

A base station allocating unit 102, configured to determine location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and allocate a serving base station to the UE according to the location information.

Optionally, the base station allocating unit 102 determines the location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE. Since the intra-frequency dual connectivity area includes the C area and the D area in fig. 1, it is not clear whether the UE is in the C area or the D area, and the load balancing apparatus 10 has different processing manners for the UE in the C area and the D area, the base station allocating unit 102 needs to determine the location information of the UE first. The C region in fig. 1 is taken as a first extension region, and the D region is taken as a second extension region. The first extended area is an area close to the original coverage area, and the second extended area is an area far from the original coverage area. The bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extended area is larger than the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extended area. After the location information of the UE is determined, the base station allocating unit 102 allocates a serving base station to the UE according to the location information. The detailed structure of the base station allocating unit 102 is shown in fig. 8.

Please refer to fig. 8, which is a schematic structural diagram of a base station allocating unit provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 6. The base station allocating unit 102 may include a parameter obtaining unit 1021, a first allocating unit 1022 and a second allocating unit 1023. Wherein the first distribution unit 1022 includes a first control unit 1122 and a second control unit 1222, and the second distribution unit 1023 includes a third control unit 1123 and a fourth control unit 1223.

A parameter obtaining unit 1021, configured to obtain an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE.

Optionally, the parameter obtaining unit 1021 obtains an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, so as to determine whether the UE is in the C area or the D area in fig. 1. The parameter obtaining unit 1021 may directly detect the offset parameter, and compare the detected offset parameter with the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station of the first extension area and the second extension area, to determine in which area the UE is.

A first allocating unit 1022, configured to determine that the UE is located in the first extension area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extension area, and allocate the target small cell to the UE as a serving base station.

Optionally, when the offset parameter obtained by the parameter obtaining unit 1021 is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extended area, the first allocating unit 1022 determines that the UE is located in the first extended area, which corresponds to area C in fig. 1.

When the UE is located in the first expansion area, the first allocating unit 1022 allocates the target small cell to the UE as a serving base station, but does not disconnect the macro base station, and the target small cell provides a control channel and a traffic channel for the UE, so as to improve the utilization rate of the target small cell. Specifically, the first distribution unit 1022 includes a first control unit 1122 and a second control unit 1222.

A first control unit 1122, configured to control the target small cell to provide a control channel for the UE.

Optionally, the first control unit 1122 controls the target small cell to provide a control channel for the UE.

A second control unit 1222, configured to control the target small cell to schedule uplink traffic and downlink traffic of the UE.

Optionally, the second control unit 1222 controls the target small cell to schedule uplink traffic and downlink traffic of the UE. Because the UE is located in the first extension area and is closer to the original coverage area of the target base station, the UE can obtain better bandwidth by using the service provided by the target small base station.

A second allocating unit 1023, configured to determine that the UE is located in the second extended area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the second extended area, and allocate the macro base station and the target small cell as serving base stations for the UE.

Optionally, when the offset parameter obtained by the parameter obtaining unit 1021 is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the second extended area, the second allocating unit 1023 determines that the UE is located in the second extended area, which corresponds to a D area in fig. 1.

The second allocating unit 1023 allocates the macro base station and the target small base station as serving base stations for the UE. Since the second extended area is farther from the target small base station and closer to the macro base station, both the macro base station and the target small base station are allocated to the UE as serving base stations. In this case, a serving base station may be flexibly allocated to the UE according to the load conditions of the macro base station and the target small base station. Specifically, the second distribution unit 1023 includes a first control unit 1123 and a second control unit 1223.

A third controlling unit 1123, configured to control the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE.

Optionally, when the UE is located in the second expansion area, the third control unit 1123 controls the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE, so as to avoid the problem that the expansion range of the CRE technology is limited because the control channel of the target small cell is strongly interfered by the macro base station.

A fourth control unit 1223, configured to control the macro base station to schedule the downlink service of the UE, and control the target small cell to schedule the uplink service of the UE.

Optionally, the fourth control unit 1223 controls the macro base station to schedule the downlink service of the UE, and controls the target small cell to schedule the uplink service of the UE. For the user equipment, the requirements of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed are generally higher than those of the downlink service on the bandwidth and the network speed, and the bandwidth of the macro base station is generally greater than that of the small base station, so the downlink service of the UE in the second expansion region is provided with the scheduling service by the macro base station, and the uplink service of the UE is provided with the scheduling service by the target small base station, which can ensure the requirements of the user equipment on the bandwidth, balance the load in the heterogeneous network, and avoid the influence of an interference signal of the macro base station on a useful signal of the small base station.

Referring to fig. 9, which is a schematic structural diagram of another load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, the load balancing apparatus 20 may include an area expanding unit 201, an intensity obtaining unit 202, an area determining unit 203, an instruction sending unit 204, a base station allocating unit 205, a load amount monitoring unit 206, and a redistribution unit 207. The area determination unit 203 includes a first determination unit 2031, a second determination unit 2032, and a relationship determination unit 2033. For specific structures of the instruction sending unit 204 and the base station allocating unit 205, reference may be made to specific structures of the instruction sending unit 101 and the base station allocating unit 102 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, which is not described herein again.

The area expanding unit 201 is configured to expand a coverage area of a target small cell associated with a macro base station, so that the expanded coverage area of the target small cell includes an original coverage area and a same-frequency dual-connection area, where a signal intensity of the target small cell on a boundary line of the original coverage area is equal to a signal intensity of the macro base station, and the signal intensity of the target small cell in the same-frequency dual-connection area is greater than a preset threshold.

Optionally, the area extension unit 201 extends a coverage area of a target small cell associated with a macro base station, so that the extended coverage area of the target small cell includes an original coverage area and a same-frequency dual-connection area, where a signal intensity of the target small cell on a boundary line of the original coverage area is equal to a signal intensity of the macro base station, and the signal intensity of the target small cell in the same-frequency dual-connection area is greater than a preset threshold. Specifically, the area expanding unit 201 calculates the signal strength of a target small cell associated with the macro base station measured by all user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station, and expands the coverage area of the target small cell according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by all the user equipment.

The area expanding unit 201 counts the signal strength of the target small cell associated with the macro base station measured by all the user equipments in the coverage area of the macro base station. Before the area extension unit 201 performs statistics, the load balancing apparatus 20 needs to determine a coverage area of a macro base station in the heterogeneous network, where the coverage area of the macro base station is usually a circle with a radius of 10km, and detect whether a small base station exists in the coverage area of the macro base station. In a heterogeneous network, including at least one macro base station and at least one small cell, an embodiment of the present invention selects a macro base station from at least one macro base station for introduction. And if the small base station exists in the coverage area of the macro base station, taking the small base station in the coverage area of the macro base station as a target small base station associated with the macro base station. In practical application, more than one small base station may be in the coverage area of the macro base station, for convenience of understanding, in the embodiment of the present invention, one small base station is selected from the small base stations in the coverage area of the macro base station as a target small base station for introduction, and the analogy can be performed according to the embodiment of the present invention when there are multiple associated small base stations.

Since the coverage area of the macro base station is large and the target small base station is also located within the coverage area of the macro base station, the area extension unit 201 counts the signal strength of the target small base station measured by all user equipments in an area except the original coverage area of the target small base station within the coverage area of the macro base station, that is, the signal strength of the target small base station measured by all user equipments in the area a, the area C, and the area D in fig. 1.

After determining the target small cell, the load balancing apparatus 20 obtains an original coverage area of the target small cell, where the original coverage area of the target small cell corresponds to a B area in fig. 1. The signal strength of the target small base station measured by the user equipment in the original coverage area of the target small base station is higher than that of the macro base station, and the signal strength of the target small base station is equal to that of the macro base station on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small base station.

Optionally, the area expanding unit 201 expands the coverage area of the target small cell according to the number limit strength of the target small cell measured by all the user equipments, so that some user equipments located in the coverage area of the macro base station can also use the information provided by the target small cell, thereby improving the utilization rate of the target small cell. The extended area is close to the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small base station and is located outside the original coverage area of the target small base station, the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the user equipment in the extended area is greater than a preset threshold value, the preset threshold value is the signal intensity of the target small base station measured by the user equipment on the boundary line of the area D, and a specific numerical value is set by a network manager of the load balancing device. In the prior art, the CRE technology is adopted to expand the target small base station, but the area expanded by adopting the CRE technology is limited, but the embodiment of the invention can expand the coverage area of the small base station to the area capable of receiving the signal of the target small base station, thereby improving the coverage area of the target small base station to the maximum extent.

The same-frequency dual-connection area comprises a first extension area and a second extension area. Wherein the first extension area is an area close to the original coverage area, and corresponds to an area C in fig. 1. The second extension area is an area far from the original coverage area, and corresponds to an area D in fig. 1. The bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extended area is larger than the bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extended area.

A strength obtaining unit 202, configured to obtain, when it is known that a UE is connected to the macro base station, a signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE.

Optionally, the load balancing apparatus 20 monitors the connection condition of the UE in the coverage area of the macro base station in real time, and when it is known that the UE is connected to the macro base station, the strength obtaining unit 202 obtains the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, so that the load balancing apparatus can determine in which area in fig. 1 the UE is located.

An area determining unit 203, configured to determine whether the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection area according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE.

Optionally, the area determining unit 203 determines whether the UE belongs to a same-frequency dual-connection area according to the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE, which is obtained by the intensity obtaining unit 202, where the same-frequency dual-connection area is an extended area obtained by extending a coverage area of the target small cell. The same-frequency dual-connection area corresponds to the area C and the area D in fig. 1 and is an extension area of the target small base station. The UE in the same-frequency dual-connection region may measure both the signal intensity of the target small base station and the signal intensity of the macro base station, where the signal intensity of the macro base station in the same-frequency dual-connection region is usually higher than the signal intensity of the target small base station, but because there are many user equipments in the coverage of the macro base station, if the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection region are all connected to the macro base station to use resources on the macro base station, bandwidth of each user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection region may be smaller, which is not beneficial to data transmission, and the target small base station may be in an idle state, which not only causes an excess load of the macro base station, but also affects user experience in the same-frequency dual-connection region. Therefore, the user equipment in the same-frequency dual-connection area in the embodiment of the present invention may be connected to both the macro base station and the target small base station, and the load balancing apparatus 20 allocates the macro base station and/or the target small base station to the user equipment as the serving base station according to the specific location of the user equipment, so that the load of the macro base station is not burdened, and the user experience is not affected.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the load balancing apparatus 20 configures an intra-frequency carrier group for the user equipment in the intra-frequency dual-connection region, that is, the load balancing apparatus 20 processes the carrier transmitted in the macro base station by using an aggregation technology similar to carrier aggregation, so that the user equipment configured with the intra-frequency carrier group can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station. The CA technology is a technology for increasing transmission bandwidth introduced by the LTE system, and is used for meeting the requirements of single-user peak rate and system capacity improvement. The CA technology can aggregate 2-5 LTE member carriers together, thereby realizing the maximum transmission bandwidth of 100MHz and effectively improving the uplink and downlink transmission rate. Generally, carrier frequencies of component carriers are not the same in the CA technology. With CA technology, each ue uses a separate harq entity on each carrier, and each transport block can only be mapped to a specific carrier. The PDCCH on each carrier is independent, and the PDCCH of each carrier is used for allocating resources for the PDSCH and PUSCH channels of each carrier. The carrier indication domain can also be used for scheduling uplink and downlink resource allocation of a plurality of carriers by using a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) on one carrier, thereby realizing high-speed transmission.

The area judging unit 203 may include a first judging unit 2031, a second judging unit 2032, and a relationship determining unit 2033.

A first determining unit 2031, configured to determine whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold.

Optionally, the first determining unit 2031 first determines whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is greater than the preset threshold. When the result of the determination by the first determining unit 2031 is yes, it can be understood that the UE can measure the signal strength of the target small cell and is greater than the preset threshold; when the result of the judgment by the first judging unit 2031 is no, it can be understood that the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is less than the preset threshold or the signal strength of the target small cell is not measured by the UE, that is, the UE is located in the area a in fig. 1 at this time.

A second determining unit 2032, configured to determine whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the signal strength on the original coverage area boundary line of the target small cell, when the result of the determination by the first determining unit is yes.

Alternatively, when the result of the determination by the first determining unit 2031 is yes, it may be understood that the UE is capable of measuring the signal strength of the target small cell and is greater than the preset threshold, so the second determining unit 2032 determines whether the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is less than the signal strength on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell, and further determines whether the UE is located in the B area or an extension area outside the B area in fig. 1.

A relationship determining unit 2033, configured to determine that the UE belongs to the same-frequency dual-connection region when the result of the determination by the second determining unit is yes.

Optionally, when the result of the determination by the second determining unit 2032 is yes, it may be understood that the signal intensity of the target small cell measured by the UE is smaller than the signal intensity on the boundary line of the original coverage area of the target small cell, and the relationship determining unit 2033 determines that the UE belongs to the same-frequency dual-connection area, where the same-frequency dual-connection area corresponds to the area C and the area D in fig. 1. When the result of the determination by the second determining unit 2032 is yes, it can be understood that the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE is equal to or greater than the signal strength on the original coverage area boundary line of the target small cell, and it is determined that the UE belongs to the original coverage area of the target small cell, which corresponds to the B area in fig. 1.

The instruction sending unit 204 is configured to send a dual-connection instruction to a user equipment UE when the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection region, where the dual-connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to simultaneously connect to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection region is an extension region obtained by extending a coverage region of the target small base station.

A base station allocating unit 205, configured to determine location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and allocate a serving base station to the UE according to the location information.

A load monitoring unit 206, configured to monitor load of the macro base station and the target small base station.

Optionally, since the macro base station and the small base station in the heterogeneous network are scheduled according to a specific Transmission Time Interval (TTI) in the LTE system, where the TTI is generally 1ms, the load balancing apparatus 20 in the embodiment of the present invention also schedules the macro base station and the target small base station according to the TTI in the LTE system. In the scheduling process, the load amount monitoring unit 206 needs to monitor the load amounts of the macro base station and the target small base station in real time, so as to flexibly allocate a serving base station to the UE.

A reallocation unit 207, configured to reallocate the serving base station to the UE when the load of the macro base station is higher than a first preset threshold or the load of the target small base station is higher than a second preset threshold.

Optionally, when the number of the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection area is too large, the load of the macro base station may be higher than a first preset threshold or the load of the target small base station may be higher than a second preset threshold, and according to a mechanism that the LTE system schedules once per TTI, the reallocation unit 207 reallocates the serving base station to the user equipments in the same-frequency dual-connection area, so as to balance the loads of the macro base station and the target small base station, and fully utilize resources of the macro base station and the target small base station, thereby improving the utilization rate of the target small base station. The first preset threshold is the maximum load capacity for ensuring that the user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station can work normally, and the user experience may be affected when the first preset threshold is higher than the first preset threshold. The second preset threshold is a maximum load amount for ensuring that the user equipment in the coverage area of the target small cell can normally work, and usually the second preset threshold is smaller than the first preset threshold.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention. The user equipment 30 comprises a connection unit 301, a measurement unit 302 and a usage unit 303.

A connection unit 301, configured to establish a connection between a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station when receiving a dual connectivity instruction sent by a load balancing apparatus.

Optionally, the UE30 may receive the instruction sent by the load balancing apparatus during moving or stationary. It should be noted that, the user equipment 30 in the embodiment of the present invention configures a same-frequency carrier group, and when the user equipment is in a same-frequency dual-connection region, the user equipment can be simultaneously connected to the macro base station and the target small base station associated with the macro base station according to the dual-connection instruction sent by the load balancing apparatus. When the UE30 receives the dual connectivity instruction sent by the load balancing apparatus, indicating that the UE30 is located in the same frequency dual connectivity area at this time, the connection unit 301 establishes a connection with the macro base station and a connection with the target small cell according to the dual connectivity instruction, so that the UE can connect to the macro base station and the target small cell simultaneously. In the prior art, a user equipment generally establishes a connection with the macro base station, and if the user equipment needs to be connected to the target small base station, the connection with the macro base station is disconnected and connected to the target small base station, so that an interference signal of the macro base station affects a useful signal of the target small base station, and normal communication of the user equipment is affected. The same-frequency dual-connection area is obtained by extending the coverage area of the target small cell, and includes a first extension area and a second extension area, which correspond to the area C and the area D in fig. 1, respectively.

A measuring unit 302, configured to measure the signal strength of the target small cell, and feed back the measured signal strength of the target small cell to the load balancing apparatus, so that the load balancing apparatus determines location information of the device and allocates a serving base station to the device according to the location information.

Optionally, the measuring unit 302 measures the signal strength of the target small cell, and feeds back the measured signal strength of the target small cell to the load balancing apparatus, so that the load balancing apparatus determines the location information of the UE30 and allocates a serving base station to the UE30 according to the location information. Wherein the serving base station may be the target small base station, or may be the target small base station and the macro base station, depending on the location information of the UE 30. At this time, the load balancing apparatus only determines that the UE30 is in the intra-frequency dual-connection area, but it is not clear whether the UE is located in the area C or the area D in fig. 1, so the load balancing apparatus needs to determine the specific location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the measuring unit 302.

A using unit 303, configured to acquire the location information determined by the load balancing apparatus, and use the serving base station allocated by the load balancing apparatus.

Optionally, the using unit 303 acquires the location information determined by the load balancing apparatus, and uses the serving base station allocated by the load balancing apparatus. Specifically, when the UE30 is located in the first extension area, that is, the area C in fig. 1, and the serving base station is the target small cell, at this time, the using unit 303 uses the control channel provided by the target small cell, and receives the uplink service and the downlink service scheduled by the target small cell; when the UE is located in the second extension area, that is, the area D in fig. 1, the serving base station is the macro base station and the target small base station, and the using unit 303 receives the downlink service scheduled by the macro base station and the uplink service scheduled by the target small base station, using the control channel provided by the macro base station.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another load balancing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Preferably, the load balancing device is deployed in a macro base station in the heterogeneous network and is a software module of the macro base station. As shown in fig. 11, the load balancing apparatus includes: at least one processor 1001, such as a CPU, input devices 1003, output devices 1004, memory 1005, at least one communication bus 1002. Wherein a communication bus 1002 is used to enable connective communication between these components. The memory 1005 may be a high-speed RAM memory or a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory. Wherein the processor 1001 may be combined with the load balancing apparatus described in fig. 6-9, the memory 1005 stores a set of program codes, and the processor 1001 calls the program codes stored in the memory 1005 to perform the following operations:

when User Equipment (UE) is in a same-frequency dual-connection area, an output device 1004 sends a dual-connection instruction to the UE, wherein the dual-connection instruction is used for indicating that the UE is simultaneously connected to a macro base station and a target small base station associated with the macro base station, and the same-frequency dual-connection area is an extended area obtained by extending a coverage area of the target small base station;

and determining the location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and allocating a serving base station to the UE according to the location information by an output device 1004.

In an alternative embodiment, the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to execute the following steps before sending the dual connectivity instruction to the user equipment UE when the UE is in the intra-frequency dual connectivity area:

when it is known that the UE is connected to the macro base station, controlling the input device 1003 to obtain the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE;

In an alternative embodiment, when the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to perform the expansion of the coverage area of the target small base station associated with the macro base station, the following steps are specifically performed:

the control input device 1003 counts the signal strength of a target small base station associated with the macro base station, which is measured by all user equipment in the coverage area of the macro base station;

In an optional embodiment, when the processor 1001 calls a program code stored in the memory 1005 to determine whether the UE is in a co-frequency dual connectivity area according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, the following steps are specifically performed:

In an alternative embodiment, the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to execute the sending of the dual connectivity instruction to the UE, and specifically executes the following steps:

controlling the output device 1004 to send a dual-connection instruction to the co-frequency carrier group of the UE, where the dual-connection instruction is used to instruct the UE to simultaneously connect to the macro base station and the target small cell, and use a connection connected to the macro base station as a primary connection and a connection connected to the target small cell as a secondary connection.

In an alternative embodiment, when the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to determine the location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and allocates a serving base station to the UE according to the location information, the following steps are specifically performed:

In an alternative embodiment, when the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to execute the step of allocating the target small cell to the UE as the serving base station, the following steps are specifically executed:

controlling the output device 1004 to control the target small cell to provide a control channel for the UE;

and controlling the output device 1004 to control the target small cell to schedule the uplink service and the downlink service of the UE.

In an alternative embodiment, when the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to execute the step of allocating the macro base station and the target small base station as the serving base station for the UE, the following steps are specifically executed:

controlling the output device 1004 to control the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE;

and controlling the output device 1004 to control the macro base station to schedule the downlink service of the UE, and control the target small base station to schedule the uplink service of the UE.

In an alternative embodiment, after the processor 1001 calls the program code stored in the memory 1005 to execute the step of allocating the serving base station to the UE according to the location information, the following steps are further executed:

controlling the input device 1003 to monitor the load of the macro base station and the target small base station;

and when the load of the macro base station is higher than a first preset threshold or the load of the target small base station is higher than a second preset threshold, controlling the output device 1004 to re-allocate the serving base station to the UE.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a load balancing system, which comprises the macro base station, the target small base station, the load balancing device and the user equipment in the heterogeneous network.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the processes of the methods of the embodiments described above can be implemented by a computer program, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, can include the processes of the embodiments of the methods described above. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like.

The above disclosure is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and it is therefore to be understood that the invention is not limited by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of load balancing, comprising:

when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in a first expansion area, determining that the UE is located in the first expansion area, and allocating the target small base station to the UE as a serving base station;

and when the obtained offset parameter is the same as the offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second expansion area, determining that the UE is located in the second expansion area, and allocating the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as serving base stations.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the step of sending a dual connectivity instruction to the user equipment UE when the UE is in a same frequency dual connectivity area, further comprising:

the same-frequency dual-connection area includes the first extension area and the second extension area, the first extension area is an area close to an original coverage area of the target small base station, the second extension area is an area far from the original coverage area of the target small base station, and an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the first extension area is greater than an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extension area.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the extending the coverage area of the target small cell associated with the macro base station comprises:

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determining whether the UE is in a same-frequency dual-connection region according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE comprises:

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the dual connectivity instruction to the UE comprises:

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating the target small cell as a serving base station for the UE comprises:

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said allocating the macro base station and the target small base station as serving base stations for the UE comprises:

controlling the macro base station to provide a control channel for the UE;

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

9. A method of load balancing, comprising:

acquiring position information determined by the load balancing device, wherein the position information comprises a first expansion area or a second expansion area;

10. A load balancing apparatus, comprising:

the base station allocation unit includes:

a parameter obtaining unit, configured to determine location information of the UE according to the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE, and obtain a bias parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell measured by the UE;

a first allocation unit, configured to determine that the UE is located in a first extension area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small cell in the first extension area, and allocate the target small cell to the UE as a serving base station;

a second allocating unit, configured to determine that the UE is located in a second extended area when the obtained offset parameter is the same as an offset parameter of the signal strength of the target small base station in the second extended area, and allocate the macro base station and the target small base station to the UE as a serving base station.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the area expanding unit is specifically configured to count signal strengths of the target small cell measured by all user equipments within a coverage area of the macro base station, and expand the coverage area of the target small cell according to the signal strengths of the target small cell measured by all the user equipments.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the area determination unit comprises:

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the instruction transmitting unit comprises:

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first allocation unit comprises:

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the second dispensing unit comprises:

17. The apparatus of any of claim 10, further comprising:

18. A user device, comprising:

a using unit, configured to acquire location information determined by the load balancing apparatus, where the location information includes a first extended area or a second extended area; when the UE is located in the first extension area, receiving uplink service and downlink service scheduled by the target small cell by using a control channel provided by the target small cell; and when the UE is located in the second extension area, receiving downlink services scheduled by the macro base station and uplink services scheduled by the target small base station by using a control channel provided by the macro base station.