In radio telecommunication systems it is important to have control of the radio environment. This is especially true for reuse-one systems, such as WCDMA or LTE (long term evolution) Radio Access Networks (RAN), as specified by 3rd Partnership Project (3GPP), where User Equipment (UE) sessions in a cell or in different cells are allowed to interfere radio-wise with each other on the same sets of frequencies. If the radio interference levels cannot be controlled in such systems, it is impossible to control parameters as, for instance, cell coverage, efficiency, or the possibility for a user equipment in a certain location to connect to and use the system.
The set of functions that is concerned with this problem area is generally referred to as Radio Resource Management (RRM). Examples of RRM functions include, e.g., Mobility Control, Power Control, Dynamic UE transmit-receive Scheduling, Load Sharing between cells (in networks that have multiple layers of cells), Cell-border interference mitigation, etc. Whereas some RRM functions have a single-cell scope, i.e. decisions that are taken by such an RRM-algorithm mainly impact only one cell and input data for such decisions results from this cell, other RRM functions have a multi-cell scope, which means that decisions taken by such an RRM-algorithm impact several cells and/or that the input data for such decisions comes from several cells. An example of such an RRM decision is the selection of the most suitable target cell at mobility and session setup, which may require load, capability and availability information for all possible target cells.
In Release 6 of the 3GPP-specifications for the WCDMA Radio Access Network (RAN), the controller for multi-cell RRM functions and some single cell RRM functions is the radio network controller (RNC) node. To provide an adequate input data to the RRM-functions in the radio network controller, a set of measurements has been defined that are to be measured in the user equipments and in the radio base stations and to be reported to the radio network controller based on the fact that and appropriate reporting criteria is fullfilled. The reporting could thus be triggered, e.g., when exceeding a certain threshold value (i.e. event-based) or could be performed periodically, etc.
The concept for measurements as specified in said Release 6 of the 3GPP-specifications for WCDMA RAN is flexible on the one hand, implies however, on the other hand, a considerable complexity. Hereby, the exact specification of a particular measurement is determined by the requesting entity, i.e. the radio network controller, and the detailed parameter settings for this measurement depends on the algorithm that uses the measurement and its parameter settings for operation and maintenance (O&M). For current measurement concepts in the 3GPP-specifications according to the state of the art, the details of the measurements are set by the measurement requester each time a new measurement is requested.