Interference control in a wireless communication system

• US 20060285503A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 12/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arak Sutivong, David Jonathan Julian, Murat Mese, Tingfang Ji
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sutivong, Arak, Julian, David Jonathan, Ji, Tingfang, Mese, Murat
• Granted Patent: US 8,848,574 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0017 where the mode-switching is based on Quality of Service requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

For interference control, a sector m estimates interference observed from terminals in neighbor sectors and obtains an interference estimate. Sector m may generate an over-the-air (OTA) other-sector interference (OSI) report and/or an inter-sector (IS)OSI report based on the interference estimate. Sector m may send the IS OSI report to the neighbor sectors, receive IS OSI reports from the neighbor sectors, and regulate data transmissions for terminals in sector m based on the received IS OSI reports. Sector m may control admission of terminals to sector m, de-assign admitted terminals, schedule terminals in sector m in a manner to reduce interference to the neighbor sectors, and/or assign the terminals in sector m with traffic channels that cause less interference to the neighbor sectors.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a motherboard;

a bus on the motherboard;

electromagnetic couplers at locations along the bus,

devices that communicate through the couplers to the bus; and

a controller to control coupling strengths of the couplers, the coupling strengths of at least two of the couplers being controlled to have different non-zero values.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the controller sends signals to the couplers to control the coupling strengths.

3. The system of claim 1 also comprising ferromagnetic substrate on which the couplers are formed.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the coupling strengths are electrically controllable.

5. The system of claim 1 in which at least one of the devices includes circuitry to measure a coupling strength of the at least one coupler through which the one device communicates with the bus.

6. The system of claim 5 in which the circuitry measures amplitudes of signals provided by the controller.

7. The system of claim 5 in which the circuitry measures bit error rates of signals provided by the controller.

8. The system of claim 1 in which the controller receives information about a measured coupling strength of at least one of the couplers.

9. The system of claim 1 in which the controller sets the coupling strength of at least one of the couplers to have a predetermined value.

10. The system of claim 1 in which the controller sets the coupling strength of at least one of the couplers to be significantly lower than the coupling strengths of another of the couplers.

11. The system of claim 1 in which the controller sets the coupling strength of at least one of the couplers essentially to zero.

12. The system of claim 2 in which the signals also set the coupling strengths of other electromagnetic couplers associated with the bus.

13. The system of claim 1 in which the controller detects the presence or absence of at least one of the devices and adjusts the coupling strength of at least one of the couplers based on the detecting of the presence or absence of at least one of the devices.

14. The system of claim 1 in which the controller controls the coupling strength of at least one of the couplers by electrically altering a characteristic of the one coupler.

15. The system of claim 14 in which the characteristic comprises either or both of permeability or permittivity.

16. The system of claim 14 in which the characteristic comprises capacitance.

17. The system of claim 14 in which the characteristic comprises a ferro-electric characteristic.

18. The system of claim 14 in which the characteristic comprises an electro-rheological characteristic.

19. The system of claim 1 in which the bus comprises

coupling traces of different configuration patterns.

20. The system of claim 19 in which at least one of the configuration patterns comprises a zig-zag pattern.

21. The system of claim 1 in which the bus comprises coupling traces of identical trace widths.