Determination of radio link failure with enhanced interference coordination and cancellation

• US 9,271,167 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Song, Osok, Damnjanovic, Aleksandar, Ji, Tingfang
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMBAYE, MEWALE A
• Application Number:
  US13/083,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20120087250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,782 Days
• Field of Search: 370/242, 370/503, 455/436
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition

Abstract

Existing criteria for analyzing radio link failure conditions may not satisfactorily address the conditions between cells that support cooperative resource coordination. Generally, when the UE declares radio link failure, the UE discontinues communication with a serving base station and searches for a new base station. When the UE lies in a region with severe interference, where the interference is coordinated between base stations by the interfering cell yielding part of its resources, the UE measurements for determining radio link failure (RLF) may vary considerably, depending on whether the measured resources were yielded by the interfering cell. When the UE measures resources which were not yielded by the interfering cell, the UE can erroneously declare RLF (e.g., due to high interference), although the UE can still access the serving cell using resources yielded by the interfering cell. Accordingly, disclosed are aspects for determining RLF based by accounting for cooperative resource coordination employing yielded resources.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

detecting interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

receiving a dedicated message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station;

determining a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

declaring a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, in which determining the signal quality metric further comprises:

receiving common administrative signals transmitted by the interfering base station; and

canceling interference on the resource yielded by the interfering base station attributed to the common administrative signals.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the dedicated message is a radio resource control (RRC) message.

4. The method of claim 2, in which the dedicated message is at least one of a connection setup, connection reconfiguration, and connection reestablishment message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the serving base station an indication of the interfering base station, the indication comprising at least one of a range of base station identities and a class of base station power.

6. The method of claim 1, in which the resource yielded by the interfering base station is configured with periodic subframes during which the interfering base station is restricted from transmitting, and a user equipment (UE) determines the signal quality metric during the periodic subframes.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the resource yielded by the interfering base station comprises a first partition having a subset of broadcast subframes from the interfering base station, and a second partition configured to avoid colliding with a frequency domain channels of the serving base station.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality metric comprises an error rate of a control channel.

8. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

detecting interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

receiving a message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station, in which the message is at least one of a broadcast message transmitted from the serving base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, an overhead message transmitted from the interfering base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, or a combination thereof;

determining a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

declaring a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

9. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured;

to detect interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

to receive a dedicated message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station;

to determine a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

to declare a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, the processor further configured to receive common administrative signals transmitted by the interfering base station;

and

to cancel interference on the resource yielded by the interfering base station attributed to the common administrative signals.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the dedicated message is a radio resource control (RRC) message.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the dedicated message is a setup and release message.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, the processor further configured to receive from the serving base station an indication of the interfering base station, the indication comprising at least one of a range of base station identities and a class of base station power.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the resource yielded by the interfering base station is configured with periodic subframes during which the interfering base station is restricted from transmitting, and a user equipment (UE) determines the signal quality metric during the periodic subframes.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the resource yielded by the interfering base station comprises a first partition having a subset of broadcast subframes from the interfering base station, and a second partition configured to avoid colliding with a frequency domain channels of the serving base station.

16. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured;

to detect interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

to receive a message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station, in which the message is at least one of a broadcast message transmitted from the serving base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, an overhead message transmitted from the interfering base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, or a combination thereof;

to determine a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

to declare a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

17. A computer program product for wireless communication in a wireless network, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having non-transitory program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising;

program code to detect interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

program code to receive a dedicated message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station;

program code to determine a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

program code to declare a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

18. A computer program product for wireless communication in a wireless network, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having a program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising;

program code to detect interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

program code to receive a message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station, in which the message is at least one of a broadcast message transmitted from the serving base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, an overhead message transmitted from the interfering base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, or a combination thereof;

program code to determine a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

program code to declare a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

19. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

means for detecting interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

means for receiving a dedicated message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station;

means for determining a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

means for declaring a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.

20. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

means for detecting interference from an interfering base station in a network supporting an interference coordination and cancellation mechanism that includes a yielding of at least one wireless transmission resource and assignment of the at least one yielded resource from the interfering base station to a serving base station;

means for receiving a message identifying a resource yielded by the interfering base station, in which the message is at least one of a broadcast message transmitted from the serving base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, an overhead message transmitted from the interfering base station indicating the resource yielded by the interfering base station, or a combination thereof;

means for determining a signal quality metric of the resource yielded by the interfering base station; and

means for declaring a radio link failure if the determined signal quality metric has a predetermined numerical relation with a threshold value.