System and Method for Cooperative Heterogeneous Communications Systems

• US 20120106442A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Xiao, Weimin
• Granted Patent: US 8,873,477 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0056 Inter-base station aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/244 Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/044 based on the type of the allocated resource
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A system and method for cooperative heterogeneous communications systems are provided. A communications system includes a plurality of cooperation sets, such as closed-space sets. Each closed-space set includes at least two information sources configured to operate cooperatively to transmit to a plurality of communications devices operating within a coverage area of the cooperation set. There is limited cooperation between closed-spaced sets. In addition, there may be limited or no overlap between .the coverage areas of the adjacent closed-spaced sets.

Claims

1. A communications system comprising

a plurality of cooperation sets, wherein each cooperation set comprises at least two information sources configured to operate cooperatively to transmit to a communications device operating within a coverage area of the cooperation set,

wherein there is limited cooperation between cooperation sets, and

wherein there is limited or no overlap between coverage areas of the cooperation sets in the plurality of cooperation sets.

2. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the at least two information sources operate cooperatively using cooperative multi-point transmission.

3. The communications system of claim 2, wherein the cooperative multi-point transmission utilizes joint processing, coordinated beamforming, coordinated scheduling, coordinated beam switching, inter-cell interference coordination, or a combination thereof.

4. The communications system of claim 3, wherein inter-cell interference coordination comprises fractional reuse or soft reuse in a frequency domain, a time domain, a power domain, or a combination thereof.

5. The communications system of claim 1, wherein a subset of the at least two information sources comprises cells of base stations.

6. The communications system of claim 5, wherein a cooperation set comprises:

a first cell operating at a first power level; and

at least one second cell operating at a second power level,

wherein the first power level is greater than the second power level, and

wherein the at least one second cell is placed at a location of the coverage area of the cooperation set where a signal level from the first cell is low and its transmission direction is steered toward the center of the coverage area of the cooperation set.

7. The communications system of claim 6, wherein the first cell is a macro cell, and the at least one second cell is a low power cell.

8. The communications system of claim 7, wherein a low power cell comprises a femto cell, a pico cell, a hotspot, a relay node, distributed antenna system, or a combination thereof

9. The communications system of claim 6, wherein the at least one second cell is located at an edge of the coverage area of the cooperation set.

10. The communications system of claim 1, wherein a coverage area of each cooperation set of the plurality of cooperation sets shares a boundary with coverage areas of a subset of neighboring cooperation sets of the plurality of cooperation sets.

11. The communications system of claim 10, wherein the coverage areas of the cooperation sets of the subset of neighboring cooperation sets have small or no overlapping area.

12. The communications system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of resource sets are assigned to the plurality of cooperation sets.

13. The communications system of claim 12, wherein each resource set of the plurality of resource sets comprises orthogonal resource in time, frequency bandwidth, frequency carriers, code, spatial, or a combination thereof, domains.

14. The communications system of claim 12, wherein neighboring cooperation sets comprise cooperation sets with adjacent coverage areas, and wherein each cooperation set of the neighboring cooperation sets is assigned a different resource set.

15. A communications system comprising:

a planned network comprising a plurality of cooperation sets, wherein each cooperation set comprises at least one first cell and at least one second cell configured to operate cooperatively to transmit to a first communications device over at least one set of resources, wherein the first communications device operates within a coverage area of the cooperation set, wherein adjacent cooperation sets transmit over different sets of resources; and

an unplanned network co-located with the planned network, the unplanned network comprising at least one third cell, wherein the at least one third cell of the unplanned network transmits over a second set of resources, wherein the second set of resources is different from the at least one set of resources being utilized by the cooperation set wherein the third cell is located.

16. The communications system of claim 15, wherein each third cell in the unplanned network operates independently of other third cells.

17. The communications system of claim 16, wherein each third cell operates cooperatively with the at least one first cell and at least one second cell of the cooperation set wherein the third cell is located to transmit to a second communications device operating within a coverage area of the third cell.

18. The communications system of claim 16, wherein the unplanned network is deployed without planning from an operator of the communications system.

19. The communications system of claim 15, wherein the at least one first cell is a macro cell, and wherein the at least one second cell comprises a femto cell, a pico cell, a relay node, a distributed antenna system, or a combination thereof.

20. The communications system of claim 15, wherein the planned network has a multi-level or multi-tier configuration.

21. The communications system of claim 15, wherein the at least one first cell and the at least one second cell comprise antennas controlled by a single base station.

22. A method for transmitting information, the method comprising:

receiving a transmission intended for a communications device operating in a coverage area of a closed-space set, wherein the closed-space set comprises at least two information sources;

coordinating, with other members of the closed-space set, a transmitting of the transmission to the communications device; and

transmitting the transmission to the communications device, wherein the transmitting occurs from a subset of members of the closed-space set.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein there is a plurality of closed-space sets, and wherein the method further comprises sharing information with other closed-space sets.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the information comprises information about traffic load, carrier usage, communications devices served, or a combination thereof

25. The method of claim 22, wherein coordinating with other members of the closed-space set comprises performing joint processing, coordinated beamforming, coordinated scheduling, coordinated beam witching, inter-cell interference coordination, or a combination thereof

26. The method of claim 25, wherein inter-cell interference coordination comprises fractional reuse or soft reuse in frequency, time, and/or power domain.