Uplink interference mitigation

• US 9,553,680 B1
• Filed: 04/02/2012
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Christian, Brett Lee, Park, Sungki, Kazeminejad, Saied, Veeraragavan, Senthil K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belur, Deepa
• Application Number:
  US13/437,383
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: 370/329
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/02 Reducing interference from electric apparatus by means located at or near the interfering apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/146 Uplink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/244 Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/367 Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0473 the resource being transmission power
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, system, and computer-readable storage media for mitigating interference in a communication system is described. A user equipment operating near an edge of its base station coverage cell may transmit a strong uplink signal, which can interfere with a nearby base station. When a serving base station recognizes a high downlink signal from a nearby base station, an interference mitigation algorithm is enabled by the serving base station. The interference mitigation algorithm of the serving base station will control the uplink signal from the user equipment, so the user equipment does not interfere with the nearby base station.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions for an interference mitigation algorithm thereon that, when executed by a computing device, perform the following process steps:

dividing a subframe frequency dimension into a plurality of resource block (RB) zones;

allocating a middle band RB zone to a user equipment (UE) when the middle band RB zone is available;

reducing a power level of one or more sub-carriers of an edge band RB zone when there are no middle band RB zones available;

allocating the edge band RB zone with the reduced power level of one or more sub-carriers to the UE; and

reducing a number of RBs to the UE when the power level of the one or more sub-carriers cannot be reduced.

2. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the middle band RB zone has a minimal level of radio frequency (rf) interference.

3. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the edge band RB zone has a higher level of rf interference.

4. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled when the UE is transmitting a maximum uplink signal.

5. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled when the UE is interfering with a nearby base station (BS).

6. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled by a BS serving the UE.

7. A computer-implemented method for interference mitigation, the method comprising:

dividing a subframe frequency dimension into a plurality of resource block (RB) zones;

allocating a middle band RB zone to a user equipment (UE) when the middle band RB zone is available;

reducing a power level of one or more sub-caiTiers of an edge band RB zone when there are no middle band RB zones available;

allocating the edge band RB zone with the reduced power level of one or more sub-carriers to the UE; and

reducing a number of RBs to the UE when the power level of the one or more $ub-carriers cannot be reduced.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the middle band RB zone has a minimal level of radio frequency (rf) interference.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the edge band RB zone has a higher level of rf interference.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein interference mitigation is executed when the UE is transmitting a maximum uplink signal.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein interference mitigation is executed when the UE is interfering with a nearby base station (BS).

12. The method of claim 7, wherein interference mitigation is executed by a BS serving the UE.

13. A base station configured to provide interference mitigation, the base station comprising:

a controller that divides a subframe frequency dimension into a plurality of resource block (RB) zones and allocates a middle band RB zone to a user equipment (UE) when the middle band RB zone is available, but when there are no middle band RB zones available, the controller reduces a power level of one or more sub-carriers of an edge band RB zone and allocates the edge band RB zone with the reduced power level of one or more sub-carriers to the UE, or the controller reduces a number of RBs to the UE when the power level of the one or more sub-carriers cannot be reduced.

14. The base station of claim 13, wherein the middle band RB zone has a minimal level of radio frequency (rf) interference.

15. The base station of claim 13, wherein the edge band RB zone has a higher level of rf interference.

16. The base station of claim 13, wherein interference mitigation algorithm is executed when the UE is transmitting a maxi mum uplink signal.

17. The base station of claim 13, wherein interference mitigation algorithm is executed when the UE is interfering with a nearby base station (BS).

18. The base station of claim 13, wherein interference mitigation is executed by a BS serving the UE.