REHOMING AND RESOURCE SHARING IN CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

摘要

A method, system, and apparatus enables automatic radio base station (RBS) (110(1)) rehoming from a first radio network controller (RNC) (115(1)) to a second RNC (115(2)) when the first RNC (115(1)) becomes overloaded and/or automatic resource sharing between/among RNCs when one RNC becomes overloaded. A managing/controlling entity (125) receives load measuring reports from RNCs and analyzes them. If a first RNC (115(1)) is frequently and/or constantly experiencing an overcapacity condition, then an RBS (110(1)) of the RNC (115(1)) may be rehomed to a second RNC (115(2)) without operator invervention. If a first RNC (115(1)) temporarily experiences an overcapacity condition, then the workload of the first RNC (115(1)) may be shared by a second RNC (115(2)) also without operator intervention. When rehoming an RBS (110(1)) or sharing a load of a first RNC (115(1)), ongoing connections are completed by the first RNC (115(1)) where the connection was initiated, but new connections are (for the rehoming case) or new connections may be (for load sharing cases) initiated using a second RNC (115(2)).