Allocating radio resources in a cellular network

Abstract

A method of allocating radio resources in a cellular network by a network node associated with a destination cell. Prior to a handover of a moving user equipment (UE) from an originating cell to the destination cell, receiving a moving user resource requirement and a predicted handover time for the moving UE, estimating a total resource requirement comprising a sum of the moving user resource requirement and an initial resource requirement comprising a sum of resource requirements of other UEs in the destination cell, determining whether a capacity of the destination cell is sufficient to provide for the total resource requirement. If the capacity is not sufficient, a decrement factor is determined for each UE in the destination cell by determining a required resource reduction using a difference between the capacity and the total resource requirement, determining a reduction factor for each UE in the destination cell by allocating a portion of the required resource reduction to each UE, determining a number of rescheduling events that will occur before the handover time and calculating the decrement factor for each existing UE by dividing the reduction factor by the number of rescheduling events and at each rescheduling event, and decrementing the resources available to each user equipment by the respective decrement factor. On handover, the moving UE is provided with an allocated radio resource equal to at least part of the moving user resource requirement.