Methods and apparatus for partial interference reduction within wireless networks
First Claim
1. A method of mitigating inter-cell interference within a multi-cell wireless network, the method comprising:
- selectively distributing individual ones of a plurality of pilot tones over individual ones of a plurality of time-frequency resources of said network; and
aligning at least one data frame sent by one cell of said network with respect to a data frame sent by another cell of said network;
wherein said acts of distributing and aligning cooperate to substantially mitigate said interference occurring at a receiver of said network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus that enable one or more wireless networks to minimize inter-cellular interference (ICI) at a receiver. In one embodiment, the network comprises an OFDM-based cellular network, and the method comprises utilizing a priori knowledge of non-data portions of signals from multiple base stations in order to schedule transmissions. In one variant, these non-data portions comprise pilot tones; the pilot tones can be scheduled onto various time-frequency resources of the network so as to minimize ICI. The mobility context of the receiver can also be used as a basis for dynamically adjusting the pilot tone density. In another variant, precoding (e.g., Tomlinson-Harashima preceding) can be applied to “shape” the non-data portions of the transmitted signals so as to mitigate ICI. In yet other variants, frame preambles and learning sequences are used as the basis for invoking selective transmission time shifts across the potentially interfering base stations so as to minimize ICI.
64 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of mitigating inter-cell interference within a multi-cell wireless network, the method comprising:
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selectively distributing individual ones of a plurality of pilot tones over individual ones of a plurality of time-frequency resources of said network; and aligning at least one data frame sent by one cell of said network with respect to a data frame sent by another cell of said network; wherein said acts of distributing and aligning cooperate to substantially mitigate said interference occurring at a receiver of said network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. Base station apparatus, comprising:
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a digital processor; a wireless interface in data communication with said processor; a network interface in data communication with said processor; and a storage device in data communication with said processor, said storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by said digital processor; receive information of a first future non-data signal from said network interface; and modify operation of said wireless interface; wherein said modification of said operation reduces interference caused by said first non-data signal at a receiving device. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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- 17. A method of operating a wireless transmitter, said transmitter being part of a network having a plurality of transmitters, said method comprising precoding only non-data portions of signals sent by at least said transmitter, said precoding being based at least in part on data received from other ones of said transmitters regarding their future transmissions of corresponding non-data portions of their signals.
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20. A method of operating a wireless transmitter, the method comprising:
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applying partial interference reduction in the transmitter, the partial interference reduction being based at least in part on a priori information received from at least one other transmitter, the a priori information relating to signals to be transmitted at a future time, where the signals comprise pilot tones; determining a context of a mobile receiver to which the signals will be transmitted; and based at least in part on the determining, selecting a pilot tone density. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of operating a wireless transmitter, the method comprising:
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applying partial interference reduction in the transmitter, the partial interference reduction being based at least in part on a priori information received from at least one other transmitter, the a priori information relating to signals to be transmitted at a future time; and wherein the a priori information received from at least one other transmitter comprises scheduling information relating to at least one future transmission schedule for pilot tones. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28)
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Specification