BACKHAUL COMMUNICATION FOR INTERFERENCE MANAGEMENT

• US 20080233967A1
• Filed: 03/20/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Damnjanovic, Aleksandar, Malladi, Durga Prasad, Montojo, Juan, Flore, Oronzo
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,223 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/452.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/12 between access points and access point controllers

Abstract

System(s) and method(s) are provided for inter-cell interference management in a wireless communication system. A base station perform interference management by conveying and receiving load indicator messages over a backhaul communication link to disparate neighboring base stations that serve interfering mobile stations. Reporting of load indicators takes place according to a reporting policy that is event-based, and accounts for variations of interference metrics over available time-frequency resources. Communication with neighboring base stations is limited to a monitoring interference set, which can be determined statically, according to deployment characteristics of a wireless network, or the set can be adjusted dynamically according to a set of received UL signals or a set of DL CQI measurement reports. Reporting policy and interference set can be autonomously adapted to optimize backhaul traffic as well as interference control.

Claims

1. A method for managing interference in a wireless system, the method comprising:

generating a first uplink (UL) interference metric;

generating a load indicator according to a reporting policy;

conveying a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication wired link;

receiving a set of load indicators through the backhaul communication wired link; and

scheduling a set of communication resources according to the received load indicators to mitigate a second UL interference metric.

2. The method of claim 1, determining an UL interference metric further comprising receiving an UL sounding reference signal.

3. The method of claim 1, determining an UL interference metric further comprising receiving an UL traffic signal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a downlink (DL) channel quality measurement report.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one load indicator in the set of load indicators is determined for a set of frequency resources.

6. The method of claim 1, conveying a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication wired link further comprising conveying the set of load indicators to a set of neighboring base stations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of neighboring base stations is determined by a service provider.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of neighboring base stations is determined through a set of UL performance metrics associated with a set of serving base stations.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of neighboring base stations is determined based at least in part on a set of DL channel quality indicator measurement reports.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of the load indicators in the set of load indicators includes a time stamp.

11. The method claim 1, wherein the reporting policy comprises evaluating a difference among a current UL interference metric and a prior UL interference metric.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting policy comprises comparing an UL interference metric with a threshold value for the UL interference metric.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting policy comprises responding to a request to receive a load indicator.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting policy comprises reporting a load indicator message periodically.

15. The method of claim 1, generating an UL interference metric further comprising measuring an UL signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein measuring an UL signal includes measuring interference over thermal noise.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising inferring a reporting policy based at least in part on historic data on UL interference metrics.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising inferring a reporting policy based at least in part on a cost-benefit analysis to optimize a backhaul communication link.

19. The method of claim 4, further comprising inferring a source of interference based at least in part on a set of DL channel quality reports, a set of scheduled time-frequency resources, or a set of load indicators.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated load indicator is a P-bit word, with P a positive integer.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated load indicator is a message in a short message service.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated load indicator is a cookie file.

23. An electronic device to execute the method of claim 1.

24. A device that operates on a wireless system, comprising:

a processor configured to receive an uplink (UL) signal;

to generate an UL interference metric;

to generate a load indicator according to a reporting policy; and

to convey a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication link; and

a memory coupled to the processor.

25. The device of claim 24, the processor further configured to receive a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication link;

and schedule a set of communication resources according to the received set of load indicators.

26. The device of claim 24, the processor further configured to receive a downlink (DL) channel quality measurement report.

27. The device of claim 25, wherein to generate an UL interference metric includes to measure interference over thermal noise.

28. The device of claim 24, wherein to convey a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication link further comprises to convey the set of load indicators to a predetermined set of base stations.

29. The device of claim 28, wherein the predetermined set of base stations is established by a service provider.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the predetermined set of base stations is determined through a set of UL performance metrics.

31. The device of claim 29, wherein the predetermined set of base stations is determined through a set of on DL channel quality indicator measurement reports.

32. The device of claim 29, wherein the load indicator is determined for a set of frequency resources.

33. The device of claim 24, wherein the reporting policy comprises an evaluation of a difference among a current UL interference metric and a prior UL interference metric.

34. The device of claim 24, wherein the reporting policy comprises a comparison of an UL interference metric with a threshold value for the UL interference metric.

35. The device of claim 24, wherein the reporting policy comprises a response to a request to receive a load indicator.

36. The device of claim 24, wherein the reporting policy comprises reporting a load indicator message periodically.

37. The device of claim 24, wherein to generate an UL interference metric includes to measure an UL signal.

38. The device of claim 37, wherein to measure an UL signal includes at least one of a measurement of interference over thermal noise.

39. The device of claim 26, the processor further configured to infer a source of interference based at least in part on a set of DL channel quality reports, a set of scheduled time-frequency resources, or a set of load indicators.

40. An apparatus that operates in a wireless environment, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving an uplink (UL) signal;

means for determining an UL interference metric;

means for generating a load indicator according to a reporting policy;

means for conveying a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication link;

means for receiving a set of load indicators through the backhaul communication link; and

means for scheduling a set of communication resources according to the received load indicators to mitigate an UL interference metric.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, further comprising means for receiving a set of downlink (DL) channel quality reports.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, further comprising means for establishing a set of neighbor base stations.

43. The apparatus of claim 40, means for determining an UL interference metric further including means for measuring interference over thermal noise.

44. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the reporting policy includes at least one of an event-based policy or a time-frequency policy.

45. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein a time-frequency policy includes reporting periodically.

46. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium including:

code for causing at least one computer to determine an uplink (UL) interference metric;

code for causing the at least one computer to generate a load indicator according to a reporting policy;

code for causing the at least one computer to convey a set of load indicators through a backhaul communication link;

code for causing the at least one computer to receive a set of load indicators through the backhaul communication link; and

code for causing the at least one computer to schedule a set of communication resources according to the received load indicators to mitigate an UL interference metric.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 46, further including code for causing the at least one computer to infer a reporting policy that optimizes load indicator traffic through a backhaul communication wired link.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein code for causing at least one computer to determine an UL interference metric includes code for causing the at least one computer to determine interference over thermal noise.