FRACTIONAL FREQUENCY REUSE IN HETEROGENEOUS NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A method of operating a heterogeneous radio access network, the heterogeneous radio access network comprising a macro layer including at least one macro cell served by a macro base station node and a micro layer comprising at least one micro cell served by a micro base station node, the method comprising:
- dividing a frequency bandwidth usable by the heterogeneous radio access network into a frequency-partitioned portion which is less than the entire frequency bandwidth;
assigning a frequency of the frequency-partitioned portion to a wireless terminal in an edge region of the micro cell;
assigning a frequency of the frequency bandwidth to a wireless terminal which is in a center region of the micro cell or at least within a center region of the macro cell.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A base station node (BS) of a heterogeneous radio access network comprises a terminal locator (34) and a scheduler (36). The terminal locator (34) obtains an indication of location of a wireless terminal (30) in a cell served by the base station (BS), e.g., whether the wireless terminal (30) is in a center region (M) or an edge region (E) for the cell served by the base station node (BS). The scheduler (36) uses the indication of location to assign to the wireless terminal (30) a frequency of a frequency bandwidth usable by the heterogeneous radio access network. The scheduler (36) assigns a frequency from a partitioned portion of the frequency bandwidth if the cell served by the base station node is a micro cell and the wireless terminal is in an edge region of a micro cell. The scheduler (36) also assigns a frequency of the frequency bandwidth if the cell served by the base station node is a micro cell and the wireless terminal is in a center portion of the micro cell.
-
Citations
42 Claims
-
1. A method of operating a heterogeneous radio access network, the heterogeneous radio access network comprising a macro layer including at least one macro cell served by a macro base station node and a micro layer comprising at least one micro cell served by a micro base station node, the method comprising:
-
dividing a frequency bandwidth usable by the heterogeneous radio access network into a frequency-partitioned portion which is less than the entire frequency bandwidth; assigning a frequency of the frequency-partitioned portion to a wireless terminal in an edge region of the micro cell; assigning a frequency of the frequency bandwidth to a wireless terminal which is in a center region of the micro cell or at least within a center region of the macro cell. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A base station node of a heterogeneous radio access network, the heterogeneous radio access network comprising a macro layer including at least one macro cell served by a macro base station node and a micro layer including at least one micro cell served by a micro base station node, the base station node comprising:
-
a terminal locator configured to obtain an indication of location of a wireless terminal in a cell served by the base station node; a scheduler configured to use the indication of location to assign to the wireless terminal a frequency of the frequency bandwidth usable by the heterogeneous radio access network, the scheduler being configured to assign a frequency from a frequency-partitioned portion of the frequency bandwidth if the wireless terminal is in an edge region of the cell served by the base station node, the frequency-partitioned portion being less than the entire frequency bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
-
Specification