Method, device and program for validation of sleeping cells in a communications network

摘要

A method for detecting a malfunction in a cell of a telecommunication network is disclosed. The cell is adapted to serve a plurality of user devices identified by user identities and to handle signaling and/or data traffic between the network and the user devices. A lack of traffic is detected in the cell. Further, at least one user identity which identifies a user device is selected. The selected user device is served by the cell. Then a paging message is sent to the user device which is identified by the at least one selected user identity. Finally the malfunction of the cell is validated in case no response message is sent by the user device to said paging message.

主权项

1. A method for detecting a malfunction in a cell of a telecommunication network, the cell being adapted to serve a plurality of user devices identified by user identities and handling signaling and/or data traffic between the network and the user devices, the method comprising:
detecting a lack of traffic in the cell, based on the detecting, select at least one user identity identifying a user device, wherein the user device is in a coverage area of the cell, and wherein the at least one user identity belongs to a first list of user identities that are ordered according to a priority ordering, sending a paging message to the user device identified by the at least one selected user identity, and validating a malfunction of the cell responsive to a determination that no response message is sent by the user device in response to said paging message, wherein the priority ordering is configured to reflect an expected likelihood of receiving an answer from respective user identities of the first list of user identities.