Uplink interference mitigation

• US 9,907,077 B1
• Filed: 08/03/2016
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• 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: Park, Sungki, Kazeminejad, Saied, Christian, Brett Lee, Veeraragavan, Senthil K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belur, Deepa
• Application Number:
  US15/227,712
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• 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. A computer-implemented method of mitigating interference using a computing system having processor, memory, and data storage units, the computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting, via a serving base station (BS), that a high downlink (DL) signal from a nearby BS is received by a user equipment (UE), the UE being an edge UE located at an edge of a power transmission cell served by the serving BS;

inferring an uplink (UL) signal of the UE, via the detected high DL signal;

enabling an interference mitigation algorithm, via the serving BS, wherein enabling the interference mitigation algorithm comprises;

determining whether middle band resource blocks (RBs) are available, and

upon determining whether middle band RBs are available,

allocating one or more of the middle band RBs to the edge UE;

requesting from the UE, an updated DL signal measurement of the nearby BS; and

disabling the interference mitigation algorithm when the updated DL signal measurement is less than a threshold level.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

recognizing the UE is interfering with the nearby BS.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

continuing to enable the interference mitigation algorithm when the updated DL signal measurement is not less than the threshold level.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the high DL signal comprises a high Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) from the nearby BS.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the RSRP is being transmitted from a public safety agency BS.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the UE is transmitting a maximum UL signal.

7. 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:

enabling an interference mitigation algorithm, via a serving base station (BS) that is serving a user equipment (UE) located at an edge of a power transmission cell of the serving BS, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm comprises;

determining whether middle band resource blocks (RBs) are available, and

upon determining whether middle band RBs are available,

allocating one or more of the middle band RBs to the edge UE;

requesting from the UE, an updated DL signal measurement of the nearby BS; and

disabling the interference mitigation algorithm when the updated DL signal measurement is less than a threshold level.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting, via the serving BS, that a high DL signal from the nearby BS is received by the UE prior to enabling the interference mitigation algorithm.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8, further comprising:

inferring an uplink (UL) signal of the UE, via the detected high DL signal.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 7, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled when the UE is transmitting a maximum uplink signal.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 7, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled when the UE is interfering with the nearby BS.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 7, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled by the BS serving the UE.

13. An interference mitigation communication system, comprising:

a base station (BS) serving a plurality of user equipment'"'"'s (UEs) within a power transmission coverage cell; and

an interference mitigation algorithm enabled by the BS for controlling an uplink (UL) signal being transmitted by one of the UEs operating near an edge of the power transmission coverage cell, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm comprises;

determining whether middle band resource blocks (RBs) are available, and

upon determining that middle band RBs are available, allocating one or more of the middle band RBs to the UE operating near the edge.

14. The interference mitigation communication system of claim 13, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm controls the UL signal interference of the UE onto a nearby BS and its associated UEs.

15. The interference mitigation communication system of claim 13, wherein the interference mitigation algorithm is enabled in response to recognizing a high downlink (DL) reference signal from a nearby frequency.

16. The interference mitigation communication system of claim 15, wherein the high DL reference signal is measured by the UE.

17. The interference mitigation communication system of claim 15, wherein the nearby frequency originates from one of a public safety agency or a Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) cellular system.