Carrier reuse in a multicarrier wireless communication environment

• US 9,084,119 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2010
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Damnjanovic, Jelena M., Bhushan, Naga, Montojo, Juan
• Primary Examiner(s): SIVJI, NIZAR N
• Application Number:
  US12/652,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20100173637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,016 Days
• Field of Search: 455/447, 455/436, 375/300, 375/219, 375/267, 375/260, 375/330, 375/441, 375/526, 375/431, 370/342, 370/468, 370/329
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0062 Avoidance of ingress interference, e.g. ham radio channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/12 Fixed resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate employing fractional frequency reuse within carriers in a multicarrier heterogeneous wireless communication environment. Each carrier can be divided into a plurality of frequency reuse sets. Moreover, each of the frequency reuse sets from each carrier can be categorized as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse. Further, a downlink transmission can be scheduled upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth. For example, the resources can be scheduled based upon a power class of a base station, categorizations of the frequency reuse set (e.g., unrestricted reuse versus restricted reuse, . . . ), and/or received feedback related to downlink channel conditions.

Claims

1. A method that facilitates reusing carriers in a multicarrier wireless communication environment, comprising:

scheduling a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth, wherein the scheduling is based at least in part on categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

sending the downlink transmission utilizing the resources as scheduled.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising scheduling the downlink transmission upon the resources of at least the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth based upon an interference level experienced by an access terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a frequency reuse set of the base station of the first power class is categorized differently as compared to a frequency reuse set of the base station of the second power class.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

categorizing each of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse further as a function of a carrier power level associated with the first carrier bandwidth; and

categorizing each of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse further as a function of a carrier power level associated with the second carrier bandwidth.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying the interference level experienced by the access terminal based upon received feedback.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and the interference level experienced by the access terminal on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is above a threshold.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and the interference level experienced by the access terminal on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is above a threshold.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and the interference level experienced by the access terminal on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is below a threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the downlink transmission at a full power level of the base station of the second power class on resources of restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and unrestricted reuse sets of the second carrier bandwidth.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and the interference level experienced by the access terminal on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is below a threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the downlink transmission at a full power level of the base station of the first power class on resources of unrestricted reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth; and

sending the downlink transmission at a lower power level of the base station of the first power class on resources of restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising inhibiting transmission from the base station of the first power class upon a reserved first M orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a sub-frame across a carrier bandwidth for at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth when the at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth corresponds to a shared carrier with low power, wherein M is an integer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a value of M is at least one of signaled via a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) or predefined as the integer 3.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring a reference signal as a function of carrier power level, power class of the base station of the first and second power class, and categorizations of the frequency reuse sets from at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein configuring the reference signal further comprises selecting at least one of resources used for the reference signal or power level used for the reference signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the reference signal is configured to use at least one of low power on restricted reuse sets or high power on unrestricted reuse sets on a shared carrier with low power for the base station of the first power class.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising placing a control channel for the base station of the second power class on a shared carrier with unrestricted power within unrestricted reuse sets of the base station of the second power class.

18. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that retains instructions related to scheduling a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth, wherein the scheduling is based at least in part on categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, configured to execute the instructions retained in the memory.

19. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to recognizing an interference level experienced by an access terminal based upon received feedback.

20. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and an interference level experienced by an access terminal on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is above a threshold.

21. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and an interference level experienced by an access terminal on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is above a threshold.

22. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and an interference level experienced by an access terminal on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is below a threshold.

23. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to sending the downlink transmission at a full power level of the base station of the second power class on resources of restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and unrestricted reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth.

24. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and an interference level experienced by an access terminal on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth is below a threshold.

25. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to sending the downlink transmission at a full power level of the base station of the first power class on resources of unrestricted reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth, and sending the downlink transmission at a lower power level of the base station of the first power class on resources of restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth.

26. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to inhibiting transmission from the base station of the first power class upon a reserved first M orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a sub-frame across a carrier bandwidth for at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth when the at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth corresponds to a shared carrier with low power, wherein M is an integer.

27. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein a value of M is at least one of signaled via a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) or predefined as the integer 3.

28. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to configuring a reference signal as a function of carrier power level, the power class of the base station of the first and second power class, and categorizations of the frequency reuse sets from at least one of the first carrier bandwidth or the second carrier bandwidth by selecting at least one of resources used for the reference signal or power level used for the reference signal.

29. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 18, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to placing a control channel for the base station of the second power class on a shared carrier with unrestricted power within unrestricted reuse sets of the base station of the second power class.

30. A wireless communications apparatus that enables allocating resources in a multicarrier wireless communication environment, comprising:

means for scheduling a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth, wherein the scheduling is based at least in part on categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

means for sending the downlink transmission utilizing the resources as scheduled.

31. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 30, further comprising means for evaluating an interference level experienced by an access terminal, and wherein the means for scheduling further schedules the downlink transmission based on the interference level experienced by the access terminal.

32. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 30, further comprising means for controlling a power level at which the downlink transmission is sent.

33. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising;

code for assigning resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth for a downlink transmission, wherein the resources are assigned based at least in part on categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

code for sending the downlink transmission via the resources as assigned.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the resources are assigned based upon an interference level indicated by an access terminal.

35. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises code for controlling a power level at which the downlink transmission is sent.

36. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to;

recognize an interference level experienced by an access terminal based upon received feedback;

schedule a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth, wherein the scheduling is based at least in part on categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

send the downlink transmission utilizing the resources as scheduled.

37. A method that facilitates operating in a multicarrier wireless communication environment, comprising:

monitoring downlink channel conditions;

transmitting feedback corresponding to the downlink channel conditions; and

receiving a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth assigned based at least in part upon the feedback and categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein each of the frequency reuse sets is categorized as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse as a function of respective carrier power levels.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and the downlink channel conditions on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth are above a threshold.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and the downlink channel conditions on restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth are above a threshold.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the second power class is a low power base station and the downlink channel conditions on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth are below a threshold.

42. The method of claim 37, wherein the first subset of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second subset of the frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth include unrestricted reuse sets and restricted reuse sets when the base station of the first power class is a high power base station and the downlink channel conditions on the restricted reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth are below a threshold.

43. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that retains instructions related to monitoring downlink channel conditions, transmitting feedback corresponding to the downlink channel conditions, and receiving a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth assigned based upon the feedback and categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, configured to execute the instructions retained in the memory.

44. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 43, wherein each of the frequency reuse sets is categorized as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse as a function of respective carrier power levels.

45. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 43, wherein the memory further retains instructions related to monitoring the downlink channel conditions for each of the frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth and the second carrier bandwidth.

46. A wireless communications apparatus that enables operating in a multicarrier wireless communication environment, comprising:

means for measuring downlink interference;

means for reporting the downlink interference; and

means for receiving a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth allocated based at least in part upon the downlink interference and categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class.

47. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 46, wherein each of the frequency reuse sets is categorized as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse as a function of respective carrier power levels.

48. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising;

code for reporting measured downlink interference; and

code for obtaining a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth allocated based at least in part upon the measured downlink interference and categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class.

49. The computer program product of claim 48, wherein each of the frequency reuse sets is categorized as being for one of unrestricted reuse or restricted reuse as a function of respective carrier power levels.

50. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to;

monitor downlink channel conditions;

transmit feedback corresponding to the downlink channel conditions; and

receive a downlink transmission upon resources of at least a first subset of frequency reuse sets from a first carrier bandwidth and a second subset of frequency reuse sets from a second carrier bandwidth assigned based upon the feedback and categorizations of the first subset of frequency reuse sets from the first carrier bandwidth as being for restricted reuse for a base station of a first power class and unrestricted reuse for a base station of a second power class, and is based at least in part on categorizations of the second subset of frequency reuse sets from the second carrier bandwidth as being for unrestricted reuse for the base station of the first power class, and wherein the base station of the second power class is at least partially within a coverage area of the base station of the first power class.