JP7759377B2 - Traffic shaping in DU/CU for artificially reducing traffic load on radio receivers - Patents.com - Google Patents

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/945,131, filed July 31, 2020, and to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/945,196, filed July 31, 2020. The contents of both applications are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[Technical Field]
The following discussion relates generally to power management in wireless communication systems. More specifically, the following discussion relates to systems, devices, and automated processes that reduce power drawn by radio frequency (RF) radios based on utility power interruptions or failures, such as in 5G data networks, through smart bandwidth adaptation and traffic loading that increases the operating time of switched backup uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

5G data standards and telephone networks have been developed to provide significantly improved bandwidth and quality of service to mobile phones, computers, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. High-bandwidth 5G networks, however, face additional challenges that are now being recognized. In part, due to the high bandwidth, 5G base stations are expected to consume approximately three times the power of conventional 4G base stations during use. Furthermore, more 5G base stations will be required to cover the same area as conventional 4G base stations. Therefore, not only will each 5G base station consume three times the power of a 4G base station, but more 5G base stations will be used to cover the same area, resulting in a significant increase in power consumption.

Furthermore, with increased power usage, in the event of an AC power outage, 5G base stations will need to have battery backups to ensure service during the AC power outage. These battery backup units are expensive, and the cost of the battery backup is determined in part by the amount of power required and subsequently consumed by the 5G base station's RF radio transmitters and receivers, which in this case exceeds that of conventional 4G base stations in both number of uses and power required for each 5G base station. In these cases where large amounts of power are required and consumed by several 5G base stations, multiple series- or parallel-connected backup power packs are required, which results in a several-fold increase in cost in the final configured 5G base station per cell site.

The use of beam management is defined as the process of acquiring and maintaining a set of beams emitted by a gNB and/or UE, and it is desirable to implement beam management to reduce the power demands for downlink and/or downlink transmission and reception.

It is desirable to provide a solution that implements choking of heavily loaded channels, as opposed to reducing bandwidth. It is desirable to reduce power consumption at the cell site, which can be reduced by blocking heavily loaded channels (i.e., limiting users), and the power consumption savings can be shown to be a function. That is, rather than applying traffic management to ensure fairness between users, a traffic management solution can be implemented that would take additional considerations between users into account to incrementally reduce power consumption for individual channels, which can reduce power consumption and extend backup battery life.

It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices, and automated processes that can monitor utility power interruptions and failures and enable different configurations of base station components to operate in a desired cell network. It is also desirable to improve connectivity and operating time for base station equipment operating in backup power mode using backup batteries at cell sites in 5G or similar networks.

Further, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Illustrative embodiments are described below with reference to the following drawings, in which like numerals refer to like elements:

1 illustrates an example diagram of components within an adaptive channel selection and traffic shaping power management system in a wireless data networking environment in accordance with various embodiments. 1 illustrates an example diagram of a feedback communication loop for power management of a base station in response to a utility power interruption or failure of a base station power management system in a wireless data networking environment according to various embodiments. 10 illustrates an exemplary flow chart for power management of a base station in response to a utility power interruption or failure in a base station power management system according to various embodiments. 1 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary minislot and frequency process for responding to a utility power interruption or failure in a base station power management system in accordance with various embodiments. 10 illustrates an exemplary channel selection and traffic shaping flowchart for artificially reducing the total traffic load on a wireless receiver so that not all TTLs carry data, in accordance with various embodiments. 10 illustrates an exemplary flow chart of exemplary channel selection and traffic shaping to artificially reduce the total traffic load on a wireless receiver so that not all TTLs carry data, according to various embodiments. 1 illustrates an example diagram of a user equipment (UE) and network architecture, including an automated process for reducing power consumption, in accordance with various embodiments.

Systems, devices, and automated processes are provided for reducing congested channels and adapting network traffic at a cell site to reduce backup power consumption at the cell site in response to power losses with or without channel congestion at the cell site.

In an exemplary embodiment, a system for adaptive channel and traffic shaping management in a network is provided. The system includes an element management control unit, a scheduler unit, and a control unit. The element management control unit includes a set of distribution and aggregation units (DU/CU) for monitoring power and channel traffic conditions at multiple cell sites in the network. The scheduler unit for transmitting and receiving data traffic data for user equipment (UE) is configured to receive control data about congested network channels in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmissions from the UE and to apply a channel management solution at the cell site to choke off the congested channel via a scheduling scheme based on the control data about the amount of traffic data on the channel. The control unit is coupled to the scheduler unit for managing network traffic at the cell site and is configured to apply an adaptive traffic management solution to shape network data traffic on selected channels based on the control data about the traffic type on the channel and to repeatedly apply the channel and traffic management solution at the cell site based on the power and channel traffic condition data received by the DU/CU.

In various exemplary embodiments, the system further includes a control unit for applying an adaptive beam management solution to reduce power at a cell site, the control unit configured to dynamically configure settings for power supplied to beam configurations used for UL and DL transmissions at the cell site to maintain current levels of beam signals throughout the cell site while reducing power consumed at the network cell site. The system further includes a scheduler unit for implementing a time-domain-based schedule to reduce power consumption in UL and DL transmissions by applying a set of time-domain scheduling periods for scheduling network traffic on the channel to reduce the amount of network traffic. The system further includes a scheduler unit configured to use a certain number of OFDM symbols to manage network traffic on a congested channel by allowing a dynamic set of minislots to transmit and receive data requests in scheduled operation. The system further includes a control unit configured to maintain the same active bandwidth before the outage for selected channels not subject to choking operation at the cell site. The reduced traffic includes minislot lengths for minislot configuration periods of UL and DL transmissions including two, four, and eight OFDM symbols. The system includes a scheduler unit configured to support low latency and reduced power consumption per reduced traffic transmission by enabling UL and DL transmissions over variable durations of traffic data subframes of each minislot based on a set of frequencies on which the traffic data subframes are part of a sequence of packet data transmitted in the slot. The system includes a control unit configured to enable power management by implementing one or more actions including choking congested channels at a cell site, adapting beam management, and filtering network traffic. The system includes a scheduler unit configured to preempt already-in-progress subframe data transmissions to other UEs in response to an ongoing traffic transmission to enable immediate transmission of subframe data with low latency on a less congested channel to reduce the amount of power consumption. The system includes a control unit configured to restore the choked channel and traffic shaped by the control and filtering actions in a priority scheme in response to detected power.

In another exemplary embodiment, a method for adaptive channel and traffic shaping management is provided. The method includes configuring an element management control unit including a set of distribution (DU) and aggregation units (DU/CU) for monitoring power and channel traffic at multiple cell sites in a network; transmitting and receiving user equipment (UE) data traffic data by a scheduler unit; receiving control data about congested network channels in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmissions from the UE by the scheduler unit; applying a channel management solution at the cell site to choke off the congested channel via a scheduling scheme based on the control data about the amount of traffic data on the channel; applying, by a control unit coupled to the scheduler unit for managing network traffic at the cell site, the adaptive traffic management solution to shape network data traffic on selected channels based on the control data about traffic types on the channels; and repeatedly applying, by the control unit, the channel and traffic management solution at the cell site based on the power and channel traffic condition data received by the DU/CU.

In various exemplary embodiments, the method includes applying an adaptive beam management solution by a control unit to reduce power at the cell site and dynamically configure settings for power provided to beam configurations used for UL and DL transmissions at the cell site to maintain current levels of beam signals throughout the cell site while reducing power consumed at the cell site of the network. The method further includes implementing a time-domain-based schedule by a scheduler unit to reduce power consumption in UL and DL transmissions and reducing the amount of network traffic by applying a set of time-domain scheduling periods for scheduling network traffic within the channel. The method includes using the scheduler unit to include a certain number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals to enable minislots consisting of subframe data when implementing transmission and reception of data requests in the scheduling operation. The method further includes maintaining, by the control unit, the same active bandwidth before the outage for selected channels not subject to the choking operation at the cell site. Minislot lengths for the minislot configuration periods for UL and DL transmissions include two, four, and eight OFDM symbols. The method includes supporting, by a scheduler unit, low latency and reduced power consumption per reduced traffic communication by enabling UL and DL transmissions over variable durations of traffic data subframes of each minislot based on a set of frequencies on which the traffic data subframes are part of a sequence of packet data communicated in the slot. The method further includes, in response to a DL transmission, preventing, by the scheduler unit, enabling at least one minislot to receive a DL transmission outside of an active bandwidth portion, and in response to a UL transmission, preventing, by the scheduler unit, enabling at least one minislot to receive a UL transmission outside of an active bandwidth portion. The method further includes enabling power management by a control unit by implementing one or more actions including choking a congested channel at the cell site, adapting beam management, and filtering network traffic.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, a computer program product is tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage device storing a set of instructions that, when executed by a processor, implements a method for a base station operating mode when a power loss accompanied by congested traffic in a channel is detected, the method comprising: configuring an element management control unit including a set of distribution (DU) and aggregation units (DU/CU) for monitoring power and channel traffic at multiple cell sites in a network; transmitting and receiving, by a scheduler unit, user equipment (UE) data traffic data; and receiving, by the scheduler unit, control data about the congested network channel in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmissions from the UE. applying, by a scheduler unit, a channel management solution at the cell site to choke off congested channels via a scheduling scheme based on control data about the amount of traffic data on the channels; applying, by a control unit coupled to the scheduler unit to manage network traffic at the cell site, an adaptive traffic management solution to shape network data traffic on selected channels based on control data about traffic types on the channels; and iteratively applying, by the control unit, the channel and traffic management solutions at the cell site based on power and channel traffic condition data received by the DU/CU.

The following detailed description is intended to provide some examples that will illustrate the broader concepts described herein, but is not intended to limit the invention or its application and uses. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background or the following detailed description.

When connecting 5G base stations to the power grid, power may not always be continuously available and provided to 5G base stations due to numerous environmental and operational reasons, such as accidents, lightning strikes, and planned outages. Therefore, to ensure robust and reliable 5G services from 5G base stations, carriers must build backup power systems. In 5G networks, providing backup power to macrocells is standard, and in many cases, sufficient service is provided at the macro level. However, power-hungry small cell structures require additional power backup that is not typically available in traditional 4G cell tower power deployments. Therefore, additional backup power is essential for the proper functioning of small cell rollouts.

In 5G networks, RF radio units are required to have battery backups to ensure service during AC power outages. Battery backup units are expensive, and the cost for each battery backup is calculated based on the power consumed by the radio unit, the backup duration, and the number of active carriers in the base station or network.

Currently, there are a number of obstacles or drawbacks that prevent the optimization of battery backup capacity in the event of a power interruption or power outage. It would be desirable to be able to optimize the required battery backup capacity as follows:

(1) Shutting down the active carrier: This is not a desirable option as it will impact user experience, such as the lack of emergency calls such as E911, and will lead to users canceling their service and switching to an operator with battery backup service. (2) Reducing the active carrier's bandwidth: Changing the active carrier BW will require a new cell configuration with a lower channel BW on the same radio, which is not easily achieved with current operations. (3) Changing the active BW will require the site to be rebooted to activate the new channel BW, which will also cause an interruption in service.

The advanced capabilities of 5G small cells mean additional power requirements. Increased data traffic demands more computing power. Massive MIMO can help improve spectral efficiency, but power efficiency is generally low; a typical three-sector small cell may require 200 to 1,000 watts of power.

Power needs to be received by large numbers of small cells in a cost-effective and repeatable manner that supports rapid and efficient rollout. The first step involves recognizing that the traditional model for powering macrocell sites does not apply to small cells.

An A frame has a duration of 10 ms, consisting of 10 subframes, each with a duration of 1 ms, similar to LTE technology. Each subframe may have 2 μslots. Each slot consists of 14 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. The 10 ms radio frames are transmitted consecutively according to a TDD topology. The subframes are of fixed duration (i.e., 1 ms), but the slot length varies based on the subcarrier spacing and the number of slots per subframe. Each slot occupies either 14 or 12 OFDM symbols, respectively, depending on the normal cyclic prefix (CP) and extended CP.

The scheduler may be configured to reduce enabled slots (i.e., uplink or downlink), for example, to implement mini-slots that do not require all 14 symbols in the slot configuration for scheduling to manage power consumption without causing service interruptions at any cell site. It may also be desirable to vary the frequency in the time domain for scheduling, as well as the enabling/disabling of slots. The scheduler may implement time-domain based scheduling, with mini-slots being enabled or disabled to reduce the power requirements of all operating carriers of cell sites in the network, particularly in the event of an AC power outage or interruption, to improve power management efficiency at each cell site.

Channel control by the control unit can be defined as the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of the NR providing services to the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer in the form of logical channels. A logical channel is defined by the type of information carried: a control channel if used to transmit control and configuration information, or a traffic channel if used for user data.

Channel control is configured into radio resources that consist of two domains: frequency and time. In the frequency domain, the channel bandwidth ranges from 1 to 20 MHz. The total available bandwidth, including 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz, is divided into 12 subcarrier subchannels of 15 kHz each, for a total of 180 kHz. The smallest allocation unit of radio resources is called a resource block (RB). One RB consists of 180 kHz in the frequency domain and 1 ms in the time domain. In the time domain, radio resources are divided into communication time intervals (TTIs), also called subframes, which have a duration of 1 millisecond. One frame is made up of 10 TTIs. Each TTI consists of two 0.5 ms slots, each containing 7 symbols. LTE-A network in a 5G environment (i.e., 5G LTE-A).

A minislot is the smallest scheduling unit used in 5G NR. It occupies two, four, or seven OFDM symbols (regardless of numerology), so a user can be assigned a minislot less than a slot (14 symbols), which is suitable for low-latency communications. It is capable of what is called non-slot-based scheduling, which would have higher priority than regular enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) users, so it can preempt other eMBB transmissions due to its low-latency requirements.

A slot may be classified as downlink (all symbols are dedicated to downlink), uplink (all symbols are dedicated to uplink), or mixed uplink and downlink transmission. In frequency division duplex (FDD), all symbols in a slot for a downlink carrier are used for downlink transmission, and all symbols in a slot for an uplink carrier are used for uplink transmission. New Radio (NR) time division duplex (TDD) uses a flexible slot configuration. OFDM symbols within a slot may be classified as "downlink," "flexible," or "uplink." Flexible symbols may be configured for uplink or downlink transmission. NR TDD uses a flexible slot configuration. OFDM symbols within a slot may be classified as "downlink," "flexible," or "uplink." Flexible symbols may be configured for uplink or downlink transmission. In FDD mode, both the uplink and downlink may be transmitted simultaneously on different spectral frequencies. In TDD mode, both the uplink and downlink use the same spectrum frequencies but at different times.

MIMO antennas communicate with multiple users using focused beams of radio waves ("beamforming"). This improves channel efficiency as well as data rates and reduces the chance of interference. Specific MIMO antenna configurations can also be implemented to focus radio energy directly on connected devices, specifying the exact amount of power and energy required to further reduce energy consumption for both base stations and user equipment (UE).

Traffic shaping can reduce power consumption at a cell site (i.e., a base station). For example, traffic shaping rules can be implemented to allow real-time voice and video, and to block or throttle applications such as peer-to-peer applications and social networking. When a channel is not congested, power consumption is reduced because the traffic rate is low. The same is not true when traffic load is high, since no free subframes remain during high traffic loads, so power consumption is not reduced. Users can be moved to a different channel when making a channel selection. For example, a user can be moved from a 20 MHz channel to a 40 MHz channel or another channel.

5G NR uses beam-based cell sector coverage, which increases the link budget and overcomes the shortcomings of mmWave channels. In other words, all data and key signaling transmissions are beamformed (directional).

The RF radio and antenna use a fixed input power based on full-load RF conditions. If utility power is interrupted, lost, or significantly reduced, the RF radio does not receive notification to adjust its power consumption accordingly. In other words, the RF radio is not notified, and is not configured to be notified of utility power loss, and cannot change or revoke its preset input power requirements. The inability to change the input power requirements of the RF radio results in reduced performance of its operation by prematurely depleting its battery backup system.

5G New Radio (NR) is a global standard for a unified, high-performance 5G air interface that may provide a faster broadband experience. It is designed with an initial bandwidth portion (BWP) used by all UEs during initial access and a dedicated BWP for a UE or group of UEs that will apply to data allocation. BWP adaptation is controlled by the gNB node (Radio Access Network (RAN) + 5G Distribution Unit (DU)/Aggregation Unit (CU)). There may be multiple smaller BWPs (i.e., RAN slicing architectures with multiple sets of function division and placement in one cell) that will be predefined by the operator to be used during AC power outages. In an exemplary embodiment, another option is to use a gradual reduction of the BWP during operation (e.g., starting with a reduction of only 25% of the BWP, then moving to progressively lower values if power is not restored). Using this process, a degradation of the user experience may be avoided in the case of a short AC power outage. Network slicing can also be linked to BWPs, minimizing power consumption by controlling the interaction of slices and BWPs during AC power outages or light network load operation. For example, an operator may choose to merge all available slices into a smaller BWP. If multiple BWPs are defined that are available during AC power outages, an operator may choose to define a mapping between BWPs and slices during AC power outages.

It is desirable to achieve cost savings using intelligent solutions to reduce the power consumption of 5G base stations when operating in backup power mode, while still meeting sufficient regulatory operating requirements to prevent radio transmitter shutdown.

To save component costs and increase current usage and efficiency, it is desirable to limit the number of backup power sources required for use when operating a 5G base station in backup power mode.

It is desirable to provide a system and method for operating adaptive minislot management to monitor power and channel traffic at multiple cell sites within a network, to enable or disable sets of minislots within a downlink (DL) pattern and an uplink (UL) pattern including at least two concatenated patterns that are periodically repeated together in a slot configuration period for New Radio (NR) communications by users at cell sites within the network, and, upon request by a user, to reserve several minislots for use in each slot configuration period, where the reserved slot numbers are responsive to at least one of an AC power outage condition and a reduction in channel traffic based on data regarding that condition received by the DU/CU.

It is desirable to provide a system and method for initializing a set of minislots for use when scheduling a UE through minislot assignments, to dynamically inform a UE about UL transmission and DL reception patterns for each minislot configuration period, in which an initial set of minislots becomes effective in response to received data about power loss, and to reduce channel traffic in the minislots from a DU/CU monitoring network cell site. It is also desirable to implement a time-domain based schedule to reduce power consumption of UL and DL transmissions by shortening slot time through changing the frequency of the minislot configuration period by applying a set of time-domain scheduling periods for a selected number of minislots that become effective in each time-domain scheduling period.

It is desirable to provide a system and method for operational management of base station components that enables smart management of power consumption by implementing adaptive bandwidth control and slicing at the cell site (i.e., node), or by allowing an automated system to reconfigure components based on an examination of the antenna's current traffic load to change the RF radio transmitter's operating mode based on an assessment of whether degraded RF radio service can be implemented under current conditions. Where possible, the RF EMS or orchestration system would execute workflows to lower the input power requirements of the RF radio. This could reduce current power consumption and increase the amount of time the RF radio/antenna can operate and provide service in backup UPS power mode.

It is desirable to implement a process whereby an operator can choose to terminate the provision of some slices and continue only the higher priority slices. Detection of a wireless AC power outage by the DU/CU, DU/CU, or NFMF can also detect the AC power outage via the FCAP and activate the solution. During an AC power outage, the RAN will notify the control unit (DU: distribution unit or CU: aggregation unit). The DU/CU will begin moving all user traffic to a designated lower BWP (e.g., the initial BWP) while shutting down all other BWPs within the currently operating carrier. Based on the configuration, the DU/CU will move all users and/or slices to a smaller BWP during an AC power outage or light network load to minimize power consumption of the gNB and will notify users of the change in assigned BWP. Users will stop monitoring their current BWP and immediately begin tracking only the lower BWP.

In multi-carrier operation, the DU/CU may also move all traffic to a single carrier based on BWP or slice priority settings. After full power restoration or increased RAN load, the gNB may reactivate all dedicated BWPs or slices and seamlessly move users to their individual BWPs or slices. In multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) operation, bandwidth allocation to UEs is reduced. When the RAN scheduler operates in MU-MIMO operation and determines that all serving users can be assigned to the same lower-order PRB, the DU/CU may turn off transmissions on other subcarriers, thereby saving power. Lower-order PRB allocations for MU-MIMO may be prioritized based on predefined priorities of BWPs and/or slicing.

To reduce power consumption of an operating RF radio, it is desirable to change the input power setting of the RF radio to a required level in response to a feedback message of a change or interruption in the input utility power level detected by the RF radio. The operating power setting of the RF radio is reduced based on immediate operating requirements, including a determination of RF service available at the antenna/radio, to provide extended operating time for antenna reception and communication time with the RF radio transmitter.

It is desirable for an automated system to be able to reconfigure components based on an examination of the antenna's current traffic load to change the RF radio transmitter's operating mode based on an assessment of whether degraded RF radio service can be implemented under current conditions. If possible, the RF EMS or orchestration system would execute a workflow to lower the RF radio's input power requirements. This could reduce current power consumption and increase the amount of time the RF radio/antenna can operate and provide service in backup UPS power mode.

It is desirable to provide a system and method whereby, when the RF radio of an operating cell (i.e., a gNB node) experiences a degradation or interruption of the utility power supply at the input to the base station, the operational system is modified to compensate for the loss of utility power supply in order to reduce the current consumption of the RF radio.

Wireless mobile communication technologies use various standards and protocols to transmit data between base transceiver stations (BTSs) and wireless mobile devices. The deployment of numerous small cells presents a need for energy-efficient power management solutions in fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. While massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) will reduce transmission power, it also introduces computational costs. The input power requirements for transmission can be a significant factor in the power-energy efficiency of 5G small cell networks, especially when operating in backup mode. In the 3GPP radio access network (RAN) of an LTE system, the BTS may be a combination of an evolved Node B (also commonly referred to as an enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and a radio network controller (RNC) in the universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN), which communicates with wireless mobile devices known as user equipment (UE). Downlink (DL) transmissions may be communications from a BTS (or eNodeB) to a wireless mobile device (or UE), and uplink (UL) transmissions may be communications from a wireless mobile device to a BTS.

Base station (BS) power consumption is divided into three categories: transmit power, computational power, and power for base station operation. Transmit power is the power used by the power amplifier (PA) and RF chain, which perform wireless signal conversion, i.e., signal conversion between baseband signals and wireless radio signals. Computational power represents the energy consumed by the baseband unit (BBU), which contains the BS's digital single processing, management, and control functions, as well as the communication functions between the core network and the BS. All of these operations are performed by software and implemented on semiconductor chips. Additional power represents the power consumed to maintain BS operation. More specifically, additional power includes the power lost in switching from the power grid to the mains power supply, the power lost in switching between different direct current-to-direct current (DC-DC) power sources, and the power consumed for active cooling at the BS.

Power losses and outages are common in today's networks as a result of natural disasters, planned power outages, etc. Base stations include backup power sources (e.g., batteries), and while these forms of backup power may not provide sufficient power during extended AC power outages, the use of commercial wireless communication services may increase due to user needs and/or desires.

A physical node or network node represents an access node (e.g., a wireless distribution unit) or a non-access node (e.g., a server and a router), while a physical link represents a fiber optic link between two physical nodes. Every physical node is characterized by a set of available resources, namely, computation (CPU), memory (RAM), and storage, that define the load characteristics of the cell site. Each physical link is characterized by a bandwidth capacity and a latency value, which is the time required for a flow to traverse the link. Finally, both physical nodes and links have associated utilization power requirements for each type of available resource.

The power supply to the BS is rectified and regulated to a nominal measured DC voltage of 48 (i.e., voltage direct current (VDC)), which is supplied to a backup battery or set of backup batteries for charging. The rectifier unit includes circuitry to keep the battery fully charged and ready in case of a utility power interruption or failure. When fully charged, the backup battery is maintained at a voltage near 50 volts. Additionally, the vendor/operator may select a DC voltage of -24V or other DC voltage setting rather than the common 48V setting. Typically, battery pack parameters per customer requirements are on the order of 2 hours of operation time or other operator backup time setting under a 100W (in this case, power is calculated per RU power consumption and is a variable amount) AC system, a 48.1V/65Ah battery that can last approximately 150 minutes at full load (e.g., the operator may select 2 hours of battery backup, 4 hours, or 8 hours, etc., depending on their desires or operational needs).

Base stations typically use a 48V input power supply that is stepped down to 24V or 12V by a DC/DC converter, which can be reduced to match the DC voltage level of each module.

In 3GPP specifications, the UE's reception and transmission bandwidth may be adjusted to a subset of the total cell bandwidth, referred to as the BWP. The bandwidth may be configured to shrink during periods of low activity to reduce power, and the location of the bandwidth may also be changed to enable different services. In an exemplary embodiment, bandwidth adaptation may be achieved by configuring the UE with a BWP, informing the UE which of the configured BWPs is the currently active BWP.

FIG. 1 shows a graphical representation of a 5G or other data network 100 including multiple cells 121, 122, 123 providing access to a network 105 for any number of UE devices 110. For simplicity, FIG. 1 shows only one user equipment (UE) device 110, but in practice, the concepts described herein may be scaled to support an environment 100 including any number of devices 110 and/or cells 121-123, as well as any type of network architecture for allocating bandwidth to different slices and performing other tasks as needed.

In the example of FIG. 1, a mobile phone or other user equipment (UE) device 110 suitably attempts to connect to the network 105 via an appropriate access cell 121, 122, 123. In the illustrated example, each cell 121 includes components for transmitting a base station controller 131, a base station transceiver 138, a node 140, an RF radio 135, a radio network controller 142, a coupling component between an antenna interface 132 and an antenna 133, and power components for a mains power interface 150, a battery circuit 154, and a backup power source 152 with a UPS or battery 156.

The utility power interface 150 may receive AC power from a utility or other source. The antenna 133 and antenna interface 132 control signals to the UE 110. The radio network controller 142 may control RF transmit power via the RF radio 135 to conserve power usage to reduce the power consumption of the UPS 156. By reducing the communication bit rate, the RF power may be reduced in decibels ("dB"). Step reduction may also be implemented. The battery circuit 154 may be configured as a rectifier-type switch that can switch the output power from the UPS 156 between multiple levels. The base station controller 138 may include a power control mechanism for controlling the power drawn by the base station 138. The base station controller 138 may also wirelessly communicate with a power management system 170 that may identify AC power outages or interruptions at the front end in order to change the power input power levels of the multiple small cells 121, 122, and 123, as well as the number of UEs 110 connected to the node 140 and resources within a slice of the node (gNB).

In an exemplary embodiment, UE 110 may be configured with up to four BWPs for the downlink and uplink, but only one BWP for the downlink and one BWP for the uplink is active at any given time. The BWPs may be configured so that each UE 110 is capable of operating at a narrow bandwidth and may notify the gNB to enable full bandwidth if the user requests more data (bursty traffic). When the gNB configures a BWP, it includes the following parameters: BWP Numerology (u), BWP Bandwidth Size, Frequency Location (NR-ARFCN), CORESET (Control Resource Set). For the downlink, the UE is not expected to receive PDSCH, PDCCH, CSI-RS, or TRS outside the active bandwidth portion. Each DL BWP includes at least one CORESET with a UE-specific search space (USS), but at least one of the configured DL BWPs of the primary carrier includes one CORESET with a common search space (CSS). For the uplink, the UE 110 should not transmit PUSCH or PUCCH outside the active bandwidth portion. The UE 110 is expected to receive and transmit only within the frequency range configured for the active BWP with the associated numerology. However, there are exceptions: the UE may perform radio resource management (RRM) measurements and transmit sounding reference signals (SRS) outside its active BWP via measurement gaps.

In an exemplary embodiment, the radio network controller 131 may implement logic implemented in computer-executable instructions stored in the device's memory, hard drive, or other non-transitory storage for execution by a processor included therein. The radio network controller 131 may also be configured with a remote radio unit (RRU) 160 for downlink and uplink channel processing. The RRU 160 may be configured to communicate with the base station controller's 131 baseband unit (BBU) 139 via a physical communication link and with wireless mobile devices via an air interface.

In various alternative embodiments, the base station 138 may be separated into two parts, a baseband unit (BBU) 139 and a remote radio head (RRH) 141, allowing the network operator to maintain or increase the number of network access points (RRHs) for a node (gNB) while centralizing baseband processing functions in the master base station 175. Using the master C-RAN base station 175, the power management system 170 may be instructed to coordinate the operation of the power levels of multiple cells (121, 122, and 123) at the same time.

Figure 2 is an exemplary flow diagram of a smart bandwidth adaptation call flow for a smart bandwidth (BW) adapter controller according to various embodiments. In Figure 2, initially in step 5, smart BW control is enabled or set to always monitor for AC power outages or light network loads. In step 10, detection by the BW adapter controller is performed as to whether a state change of AC power outage or light network load has occurred. For example, a feedback communication loop for base station power management in response to a utility power interruption or failure in a base station power management system in a wireless data networking environment, or New Radio AC power outage detection by a distribution unit (DU) or aggregation unit (CU) connected to a 5G network.

The distribution unit (DU) or aggregation unit (CU) or management function (NFMF) may also detect AC power outages by using the Fault, Configuration, AC counting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) network model and activate appropriate solutions. For example, during an AC power outage, the RF radio will notify the control unit DU/CU, and the DU/CU unit will begin moving all or nearly all user traffic to a designated subordinate BWP (e.g., the initial BWP) while shutting down all or nearly all other BWPs of the currently operating carrier.

Next, if it is determined that there is an AC power outage or light network load at the node, a small BWP will be initialized in step 15. The initial active small BWP is for the UE during initial access until the UE is explicitly configured with a BWP during or after RRC connection establishment. The initial active BWP is the default BWP unless otherwise configured.

In step 20, users are moved or assigned to smaller BWPs. For example, based on network configuration, the DU/CU may move all or nearly all users and/or slices to smaller BWPs during AC power outages or light network loads to minimize power consumption. The gNB will notify the UE of the change in assigned BWP. The UE will stop monitoring the current BWP and immediately switch to monitoring only the lower BWP. In multi-carrier operation, the DU/CU may also move all traffic to a single carrier based on BWP and/or slice priority settings.

The reduction from a wider bandwidth directly impacts the peak and data rate experienced by the user. Operating the UE at a smaller BW than the configured CBW may enable support for wideband operation while reducing power. In step 25, the adaptive bandwidth module continues to monitor for AC power outages or light network load, and if commercial power resumes, in step 35, BWPs are restored for the entire channel. After full power is restored or RAN load increases, the gNB may reactivate all dedicated BWPs and/or slices and seamlessly move users to their individual BWPs and/or slices.

In step 40, normal operation is resumed again and the power consumption level is increased. Alternatively, if step 25 still determines that there is an AC power outage or light network load, then in step 30, a feedback action occurs to delay the restoration of normal operation in all BWPs for the entire channel BW. The node remains in a limited operating state configured with a small BWP, and the BW adaptation unit continues to wait for the utility power to resume or the load to increase.

Bandwidth reduction operations and corresponding allocations to UEs may also occur in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) operation if the RAN scheduler determines that all or nearly all currently serving users operating in MU-MIMO operation can be assigned to the same lower-level physical resource block (PRB). In this case, the DU/CU units may block current transmissions occurring on other subcarriers (i.e., each PRB may consist of up to 12 subcarriers), which may also result in BS power savings. Lower-level PRB allocations for MU-MIMO may also be prioritized based on the active BWP and/or predefined slice priorities.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of a smart bandwidth (BW) adapter controller smart bandwidth adaptation call flow according to various embodiments. In FIG. 3, the smart BW adaptation call flow begins in step 305, similar to FIG. 2, and determines in step 310 whether an AC power outage or a change in the state of a light network load operating on the node has occurred. If the determination is affirmative, an initialization slice reallocation process occurs in step 315. In step 320, various slices are reallocated from their current slice allocation to smaller BWPs. Network slicing is configured such that each active slice is associated with a separate BWP, which enables the UE to systematically automatically transfer each active slice to a BWP in a scheduled order during an AC power outage or light network load to reduce power consumption by accessing the gNB through pre-configured slice control and BWP association.

For example, an operator may choose to merge all active slices in a network or at a node into a smaller BWP. The operator may choose to define profiles, settings, etc. for each BWP that makes up the BW, and also define alternative slice mappings for allocation during power interruptions, AC power outages, light network loads, etc. This may be useful when there are multiple BWPs that can be defined for use in such conditions when the full BW is not needed or power conservation is desired. Provisioning or selection may be incrementally allocated all at once and re-allocated in a similar manner for normal operation. The operator may also choose to terminate provisioning of some slices as needed, and continue to enable only certain higher priority slices for premium use or both premium and non-premium access. Furthermore, usage may be selected for an entire preset period or configured for a given period to select a set of users. In step 32, the BW controller adapter as in FIG. 2 continues to check whether utility power has been restored, and if not, continues with the configured and mapped slices selected for reduced power or load operation via step 330. In step 335, if the utility power is restored or the load increases beyond a certain threshold, all previous slices, or all slices that could be enabled without the previous restriction, will be restored and normal operation will be restored to all UEs given access.

FIG. 4 illustrates a functional diagram of minislot configuration before and after an AC power outage of an exemplary smart scheduler for minislot allocation and adaptive call flows according to various exemplary embodiments. In various exemplary embodiments, in FIG. 4, the network 400 may provide desired DL/UL transmission patterns for UL and DL requests from various UEs in response to an AC power outage or light load at 410. In FIG. 4, an exemplary embodiment shows an operating carrier (e.g., 20 MHz) with a default BWP configuration coupled to the scheduler unit before the AC power outage, which schedules data in all slots available for use by the UE during initial access for data allocation by the gNB (i.e., RAN + DU/CU). When an AC power outage occurs or the load is light and some channels are not in use, a minislot algorithm is enabled at 420 to enable and disable certain minislots during the slot configuration period. As mentioned above, a minislot occupies two, four, or seven OFDM symbols in a normal slot configuration and can help achieve low latency in data transmission. The PDSCH channel is used to carry DL user data, and the 5G channel type covers the logical channels and transport channels used in the uplink and downlink with mappings between them. In response to minislot scheduling at 420, the number of minislots is reduced in the uplink channel at 425 and the downlink channel at 430. Similarly, the number of minislots can also be reduced in the downlink channel. That is, the scheduler enables only certain minislots. At 435, the network again determines whether the AC power outage or light load continues. If not, the application returns to restore normal slot operation (450), enabling any minislots that were not enabled and restoring the channel for normal slot operation. Reducing the number of minislots reduces the time it takes for the UE to receive a message and reduces the waiting time for transmission (reception and waiting latency). The UE's proportional time in the connected state is reduced after receiving or transmitting the last packet. After this, the UE transitions to the idle state, thereby reducing the UE's power consumption (i.e., trading off connection latency time for the UE).

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a power management system for choking off active channels, beam management, and filtering network traffic by a scheduler and control unit in response to a detected power outage in a network according to one embodiment.

In various exemplary embodiments, in FIG. 5, network 500 initiates several actions to conserve power at the cell site in response to an AC power outage with or without a set of congested channels at 510. For example, the actions may include initializing an adaptive channel management solution at 515, initializing an adaptive beam management solution at 520, and initializing adaptive network traffic management at 525. Next, the power management action includes choking selected congested channels at 530. By blocking heavily loaded channels to a limited number of users, power consumption is reduced. Upon choking off each channel, the corresponding functional relationship of the amount of power to be reduced is indicated or detected by a control unit, scheduler, etc., and the choking action for the channel is measured and determined according to the detected power reduction. Therefore, rather than applying traffic management solely to ensure fairness among users, a traffic management algorithm or solution would incrementally reduce power consumption at the cell site based on whether each individual channel is choked or not, and would take into account additional considerations such as the level of network traffic congestion per channel among users to extend backup battery life. Also, at 540, beam management manages the power consumption of beam sets across the cell site not only to ensure stable communication of network traffic, but also to adjust the power supplied to various MIMO systems to more effectively take channel choking actions into account (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio power management). MIMO antennas communicate with multiple clients using focused beams of radio waves ("beamforming"), which improves channel efficiency along with data rates and reduces the likelihood of interference. Beam management reduces the power required for downlink and uplink transmission and reception. Finally, at 545, network traffic may also be filtered to minimize frame congestion and slot usage, thereby conserving power. Traffic shaping is implemented, which may reduce power consumption at the base station through traffic shaping rules, for example, to enable real-time voice and video, and to block or throttle applications such as P2P, social networking, etc. When the channel is not congested, power consumption is reduced due to low traffic rates. This traffic shaping is not particularly effective during high traffic loads because traffic is throttled, and certain application usage may still not leave empty subframes to allow for low traffic rates and subsequent lower power consumption. At 550, the network again determines whether the AC power outage continues, with or without congested channel traffic. If not, the application reverts to restore normal channel and traffic operation (565), and inactive or choked channels are enabled at 560, with any filtered traffic in the traffic shaping step no longer subject to such action.

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary flowchart of channel choking, traffic shaping, and beam management by a power management system in communication with a scheduler and control unit to reduce power usage in response to AC power outages and power interruptions with or without congested channel traffic.

In FIG. 6 , at task 605, an AC power outage is detected or determined in response to various methods, such as via feedback (i.e., a message) of an impending AC power interruption or AC power outage detected in another portion of the network communicated and received by the base station controller, from monitoring the input current to the current base station, or from monitoring traffic channel congestion in the various slots and minislots used for UL and DL transmissions. Also, channel congestion is detected or not detected for the various channels transmitting data between the cell site and the user. At task 605, a power management system is initialized. For example, an adaptive channel management system is initialized in response to channel congestion and outages. At task 610, traffic shaping management is applied to filter or shape network traffic transmissions. For example, the scheduler unit supports low latency and reduced power consumption per reduced traffic transmission by enabling UL and DL transmissions over variable durations of traffic data subframes of each minislot based on the frequency set on which the traffic data subframes are part of a sequence of packet data transmitted in the slot. In task 620, the channels at the cell site are analyzed for congestion levels. Channels with higher levels of congestion are selected in the scheme for choking off. In task 630, the channels are choked and a functional relationship is determined for the amount of power reduced in cell site usage as a result of channel disabling or choking off. Additionally, other channels and the bandwidth allocated to the cell site remain unchanged. Users may also be moved from choked-off channels to other channels within the scheme. For example, clients may be moved from a 20 MHz or 40 MHz channel to another channel. In task 640, power levels to a set of beams used for transmission at the cell site are modulated. For example, a cut-off channel may reduce traffic, necessitating a reduced power level or a change in the operating settings of a certain set of beams at the cell site. The signal-to-noise ratio may change, or users may be shifted to a different beam frequency. Additionally, by identifying a reduction in channel data rate, coordinated control of the power supplied to a particular beam may be adjusted while simultaneously maintaining a certain level of beam efficiency. Therefore, dynamic configurations are set for the power provided to the beam configurations used for UL and DL transmissions at the cell site to reduce power consumed at the network cell site while maintaining the current levels of beam signals throughout the cell site. In task 650, the network power level or outage is rechecked. If network power is restored, in task 660, normal operation of the channels is restored. Any traffic shaping actions for reduced power consumption and beam power reduction are also restored to their normal operating state. During the outage, the initial BWP portion remains the same. That is, rather than changing the number of BWPs to reduce power consumption throughout the cell site, the power management system reduces the number of channels, thereby maintaining at least the same bandwidth of selected channels that are not choked off.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram of a UE and network configuration according to one embodiment. The UE 710 includes a processor 815 for implementing various logical solution functions such as registering and receiving broadcast system information, initiating PDU sessions to implement cell selection and reselection, ranking neighboring cells, configuring different operating modes of the UE, etc. The UE 710 may include a cell reselection module 725, an input/output interface 705, a memory 730 for storing measurement reports and neighboring cell ranking data, and a measurement module 735 for calculating neighboring cell distances and other criteria through various solutions and for accessing nearby cells for premium and non-premium users. The network 740 may include a base station 775, a processor 745 for registering the UE for slice access, a cell ID module 755, a broadcast module 848 for broadcasting slice IDs, slice offset values for neighboring cells, and other system information, an authentication module 750 for authenticating the UE, a network slice 770, etc., and a BW adaptation module 860. The UE 710 communicates with the network and reads system information broadcast in the cell 810 in which the UE 810 is camped in idle mode. For example, if the UE 710 is camped on cell A, the UE 710 will receive slice IDs and slice offset values for neighboring cells of cell A via the transceiver 720 and will process the information via the processor 715 to perform and calculate measurements using a cell reselection equation of the cell reselection module 725 (e.g., using cell reselection logic or process) to select the next cell if the cell reselection process is based on neighboring cell rankings.

The scheduling unit 755 may communicate with the control unit 757 and the BW adaptation module 760, etc., via an element management system (EMS) 790 (i.e., an alternative control unit) to instruct various logical components within the channel management and control unit 757 in traffic shaping and beam management. The control unit 757, together with the scheduling unit 755, may also manage the radio receiver, UPS, battery circuit (i.e., DC power supply), call/drop call/throughput of the active cell site (i.e., node), and a set of frequency settings through an automated workflow of the cell 810 (shown in FIG. 1 ) for the server portion, thereby performing actions for channel assignment, beam assignment, network traffic filtering, slot and minislot assignment, and minislot configuration duration for the entire channel. The EMS 790 monitors the various nodes and cells in the network via the distribution unit (DU) 830 and aggregation unit (CU) 840, and controls or sends instructions to the various components of the cell 810 to maintain the cell site's quality of service (QoS). The automated workflow maintains network availability and monitors the status of network devices, including the utility power supply that powers the network. EMS 790 may also be connected to multiple eNodeBs for power management. In the event of an AC power outage within the network, the automated workflow monitoring the network instructs EMS 790, via various logic components, to reduce the output power of the radio receivers, and also considers other factors by communicating with the radio receivers, cell sites, via a router (or another communication link) connected to server 820 during the reduction of output power for transmission. This reduces DC power and UPS consumption.

In an exemplary embodiment, server 820 may be configured as an NB-IoT server, which is software for collecting, monitoring, and communicating data via routers to activate automated workflows via EMS 790, and may display log messages for each base station and the liveness status of all sessions (including information on signal, power, etc.).

After detecting a utility power interruption, power failure, power loss, and/or AC power outage in the network, the automated workflow monitoring the components and network detects the change and power loss. In response to the detected power loss, the automated workflow implements configuration management functions via the scheduling unit 755 for minislot allocation and frequency configuration, the BW adaptation module 760 for slice allocation, and the available BWPs in the cell 810. The EMS 790 communicates with the radio receiver, server 820, and other components associated with the cell site to send messages to the receiver via the cell site router, collect cell statistics, and perform appropriate base station radio receiver plug-and-play functions. The automated workflow performs various functions for the element management system based on decisions from the BW adaptation module 760 and data from the cell site and base station.

As described, the power management system includes several data processing components, each of which may be patentable and/or have patentable aspects, or has processing hardware capable of performing patentable automated processes. This document is not intended to limit the scope of the claims or the invention in any way, and various components and aspects of the system described herein may be implemented separately and apart from other aspects.

Claims (2)

a first control unit;
a scheduler unit;
a second control unit;
the first control unit includes a set of distribution and aggregation units (DU/CU) for monitoring power and channel traffic conditions at a plurality of cell sites in a network;
The scheduler unit for transmitting and receiving data traffic data of a user equipment (UE) comprises:
receiving control data for congested network channels in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmissions from the UE;
configured to apply a channel management solution at a cell site to choke off congested channels via a scheduling scheme based on said control data on the amount of traffic data on the channels;
the second control unit is coupled to the scheduler unit for managing network traffic at the cell site;
applying an adaptive traffic management solution to shape network data traffic on selected channels based on control data for traffic types on said channels;
configured to iteratively adapt the channel management solution and the adaptive traffic management solution at the cell site based on the power and channel traffic condition data received by the DU/CU.
A system for adaptive channel and traffic shaping management in said network. configuring a first control unit including a set of distribution (DU) and aggregation units (DU/CU) for monitoring power and channel traffic at a plurality of cell sites in the network;
Sending and receiving data traffic data of a user equipment (UE) by a scheduler unit;
receiving, by the scheduler unit, control data regarding congested network channels in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) transmissions from the UE;
applying, by the scheduler unit, a channel management solution at the cell site to choke off congested channels via a scheduling scheme based on control data about the amount of traffic data on the channels;
applying, by a second control unit coupled to the scheduler unit for managing network traffic at the cell site, an adaptive traffic management solution for shaping network data traffic on selected channels based on control data of traffic types on the channels;
A method for adaptive channel and traffic shaping management, comprising repeatedly applying the channel management solution and the adaptive traffic management solution at the cell site by the second control unit based on the power and channel traffic condition data received by the DU/CU.