Communication method, base station, and user terminal for a wireless communication network

• US 8,103,281 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2007
• Issued: 01/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rouffet, Denis, Urie, Alistair
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fahnert, Marisol
• Application Number:
  US11/943,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20080125132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,526 Days
• Field of Search: 455436-444, 455450-453, 455/447, 370328-338, 370/295, 370/436, 370/478, 370/480
• US Class Current: 455/447
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing

Abstract

The present invention comprises a method for communicating in a wireless communication network (1) comprising a number of cells (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) served by respective base stations (3). According to the proposed method, the following steps are performed: splitting up one at least one of a frequency bandwidth and a time interval allocated to the communication in at least a first part and a second part; using said first part for communication according to a first reuse scheme; and using said second part for communication according to a second reuse scheme.

Claims

1. A method for communicating in a wireless communication network comprising a number of cells served by respective base stations, comprising the steps of:

splitting up at least one of a frequency bandwidth and a time interval allocated to the communication in at least a first part and a second part;

using said first part for communication according to a first reuse scheme;

using said second part for communication according to a second reuse scheme; and

wherein a third part is an allocated bandwidth of said frequency bandwidth,

wherein use of said third part is split into at least a first time interval and a second time interval and wherein said first time interval is allocated for paging and interactive communication and said second time interval is allocated for broadcast transmission;

splitting up said first time interval in at least a first sub-part and a second sub-part with respect to one of frequency and time;

using said first sub-part for communication according to a first sub-part reuse scheme; and

using said second sub-part for communication according to a second sub-part reuse scheme.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first reuse scheme is a reuse-1 scheme and in that said second reuse scheme is a reuse-3 scheme.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising covering a first region of a given cell using said first reuse scheme and covering a second region of a given cell using said second reuse scheme.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a hand-over of a user terminal between said first and second parts based on at least one transmission-related characteristic, in particular a signal-to-interference plus noise ratio, SINR, or carrier-to-interference ratio, C/I, determined by said user terminal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said third part is different from said first and second parts.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said third part at least partly overlaps with at least one of said first and second parts.

7. A base station for use in a wireless communication network comprising a number of cells served by respective base stations for communicating with a number of user terminals,

comprising:

means for splitting at least one of a frequency bandwidth and a time interval allocated for the communication in at least a first part and a second part;

means for communicating with a first number of user terminals using said first part according to a first reuse scheme;

means for communicating with a second number of user terminals using said second part according to a second reuse scheme;

wherein a third part is an allocated bandwidth of said frequency bandwidth,

wherein use of said third part is split into at least a first time interval and a second time interval and wherein said first time interval is allocated for paging and interactive communication and said second time interval is allocated for broadcast transmission and

means for;

splitting up said first time interval in at least a first sub-part and a second sub-part with respect to one of frequency and time;

using said first sub-part for communication according to a first sub-part reuse scheme; and

using said second sub-part for communication according to a second sub-part reuse scheme.

8. A user terminal for use in a wireless communication network comprising a number of cells served by respective base stations,

wherein

said user terminal comprises:

means for transmitting communications signals over a predefined bandwidth; and

means for receiving communication signals over said predefined bandwidth;

said means for transmitting and means for receiving communication signals over a predefined bandwidth, being operative such that said bandwidth and/or a time interval allocated to the communication are split into at least two parts, a first part of said two parts being used for communication according to a first reuse scheme, and a second part of said two parts being used for communication according to a second reuse scheme and wherein a third part is an allocated bandwidth of said frequency bandwidth, wherein use of said third part is split into at least a first time interval and a second time interval and wherein said first time interval is allocated for paging and interactive communication and said second time interval is allocated for broadcast transmission; and

means for;

splitting up said first time interval in at least a first sub-part and a second sub-part with respect to one of frequency and time;

using said first sub-part for communication according to a first sub-part reuse scheme; and

using said second sub-part for communication according to a second sub-part reuse scheme.

9. The user terminal of claim 8, comprising:

means for determining at least one respective transmission-related characteristic for deciding on a hand-over between said first and second parts.