Inter-cell interference measurement method and device in flexible duplex system

A method of supporting interference measurement by a user equipment (UE) in a flexible duplex system, the method comprising:

• transmitting, to a first UE which is to measure inter-cell interference, a first signal for requesting uplink (UL) interference measurement and a second signal indicating a location of an uplink interference measurement resource of each subframe, during a first subframe;
• transmitting, to at least one second UE which is different from the first UE, a UL grant for allocating uplink transmission and the second signal indicating the location of the uplink interference measurement resource, during the first subframe;
• receiving, from the first UE, channel quality information (CQI) and an uplink rank indicator (RI) which are based on inter-cell interference measured in the uplink interference measurement resource;
• and
• transmitting a downlink (DL) signal to the first UE according to the CQI and the RI in at least one predetermined subframe of an uplink band.

A user equipment (UE) device, which is configured to measure interference in a flexible duplex system, where the UE device comprises:

• a transceiver;
• and
• a controller configured to:
• determine whether an uplink (UL) grant for allocating UL transmission is received from a base station in a first subframe;
• when the UL grant is not received, measure inter-cell interference with respect to an uplink interference measurement resource (IMR) in at least one second subframe determined by the first subframe;
• and
• when the UL grant is received, measure inter-cell interference with respect to the uplink interference measurement resource (IMR) in at least one third subframe prior to a subframe indicated by the UL grant.

A base station, which is configured to support interference measurement by a user equipment (UE) in a flexible duplex system, wherein the base station comprises:

• a controller;
• and
• a transceiver configured to:
• transmit, to a first UE which is to measure inter-cell interference, a first signal for requesting uplink (UL) interference measurement and a second signal indicating a location of an uplink interference measurement resource of each subframe, during a first subframe;
• transmit, to at least one second UE which is different from the first UE, a UL grant for allocating uplink transmission and the second signal indicating the location of the uplink interference measurement resource, during the first subframe;
• receive, from the first UE, channel quality information (COI) and an uplink rank indicator (RI) which are based on inter-cell interference measured in the uplink interference measurement resource;
• and
• transmit a downlink (DL) signal to the first UE according to the CQI and the RI in at least one predetermined subframe of an uplink band.