Fractional frequency reuse in heterogeneous networks

A base station node of a heterogeneous radio access network, the heterogeneous radio access network comprising a macro layer including at least one macro cell served by a macro base station node and a micro layer including at least one micro cell served by a micro base station node, the base station node comprising:

• a terminal locator configured to obtain an indication of location of a wireless terminal in a cell served by the base station node, wherein:
• the cell is a micro cell and the base station node is a micro base station node;
• and
• the heterogeneous radio access network comprises plural macro cells and plural micro cells within each of the plural macro cells;
• and
• a scheduler configured to assign to the wireless terminal, based on the indication of location of the wireless terminal in the cell served by the base station node, a frequency of the frequency bandwidth usable by the base station node in the heterogeneous radio access network, wherein the frequency bandwidth usable by the heterogeneous radio access network is divided into plural partitions, the scheduler being configured to:
• assign a frequency from a frequency-partitioned portion of the frequency bandwidth usable by the base station node in the heterogeneous radio access network if the indication of location of the wireless terminal indicates that the wireless terminal is in an edge region of the cell served by the base station node, the frequency-partitioned portion being less than the entire frequency bandwidth usable by the base station node in the heterogeneous radio access network;
• and
• assign a frequency from the frequency bandwidth usable by the base station node in the heterogeneous radio access network, including a portion of the frequency bandwidth usable by the base station node that is not included in the frequency partitioned portion, if the indication of location of the wireless terminal indicates that the wireless terminal is located elsewhere in the cell;
• and
• wherein the plural partitions are divided into plural sub-partitions, wherein a first partition is associated with the plural macro cells and a second partition is associated with the plural micro cells, wherein a first sub-partition of the second partition is primarily for micro cells in a first macro cell and a second sub-partition of the second partition is primarily for micro cells in a second macro cell, wherein the base station node serves a particular micro cell comprising the plural micro cells, and wherein the scheduler is further configured to assign to the wireless terminal a frequency selected from a selected sub-partition of the second partition if the wireless terminal is in an edge region of the particular micro cell.