Method and Apparatus for Reducing Co-Channel Interference

• US 20130005269A1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Lindoff, Bengt, Simonsson, Arne, Hagerman, Bo, Parkvall, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 8,781,400 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/63.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0026 of multi-user interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0083 Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0085 Hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/20 for optimising the interference level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

A method for providing co-channel interference information by a network node includes receiving information for at least one user equipment (UE) connected to an adjacent network node, determining a co-channel interference list for user equipment (UE) connected to the network node wherein the co-channel interference list is based on the received information and transmitting the co-channel interference list to a UE connected to the network node.

Claims

1. A method of providing co-channel interference information by a network node, the method comprising:

receiving information for at least one user equipment (UE) connected to an adjacent network node;

determining a co-channel interference list for user equipment (UE) connected to the network node wherein the co-channel interference list is based on the received information; and

transmitting the co-channel interference list to a UE connected to the network node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the co-channel interference list has been updated; and

transmitting the co-channel interference list if it has been updated.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing position information of a UE connected to the network node in determining the co-channel interference list.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information is a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a reference signal received power (RSRP) value from a user equipment connected to the network node.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

removing channels from the co-channel interference list for which the RSRP is below a pre-determined threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the co-channel interference list is transmitted via a radio resource control (RRC) signalling message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the co-channel interference list is transmitted via a media access control (MAC) signalling message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an identical co-channel interference list is transmitted to UEs connected to the network node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the co-channel interference list transmitted to UEs connected to the network node is specific to each receiving UE.

11. A network node comprising:

a receiving means for receiving information from an adjacent node wherein the received information relates to user equipment connected to the adjacent node;

a processor for determining a co-channel interference list based on the received information;

a memory for storing the received user equipment information and the co-channel interference list; and

a transmitting means for transmitting the co-channel interference list to a UE connected to the network node.

12. A computer program comprising computer readable program modules which when run on a network node causes the network node to:

receive information for at least one active user equipment (UE) connected to an adjacent network node;

determine a co-channel interference list for user equipment (UE) connected to the network node wherein the co-channel interference list is based on the received information; and

transmit the co-channel interference list to a UE connected to the network node.

13. A method of improving reception performance of a user equipment connected to a serving cell, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting adjacent cells;

measuring a signal strength value of the detected cells;

storing the detected cells and corresponding measured signal strength value;

receiving a co-channel cell interference list;

comparing an identity of cells in the received list with an identity of the stored cells to identify matching cells; and

utilizing the identity of the matched cells to improve a decoding performance of data received by the user equipment.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

searching for cells at a pre-determined interval to detect the cells.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the detected cells are potential handover candidates for the user equipment.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

measuring the signal strength values for the detected cells at a pre-determined interval.

17. A user equipment comprising:

a communication interface for communicating with a serving cell;

a cell search unit for detecting neighboring cells in a cell search process and for receiving a co-channel interference list from the serving cell;

a processor for measuring signal strengths of the detected cells; and

a memory for storing an identity of the detected cells and the measured signal strength values wherein

the processor further determines which of a cell identification of the cells in the co-channel interference list belong to cells in the detected list and uses the determined information to improve decoding at the user equipment.