US 10,757,584 B1Granted

Use of different co-existing TDD configurations on a TDD carrier, with uplink beamforming to help minimize interference

AssigneeSprint Spectrum L.P.

InventorsZheng Fang, David Z. Sun, Yu Wang, Zheng Cai

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Abstract

A base station configures a TDD carrier to have a first TDD configuration for serving of a first UE and to have a second TDD configuration for serving of a second UE concurrently with the serving of the first UE. Such configuring causes the second UE to engage in an uplink communication in at least one subframe in which the first UE engages in a downlink communication, which could lead to interference issues. Therefore, the base station causes the second UE to apply uplink beamforming, so as to help minimize interference resulting from the second UE engaging in the uplink communication in the at least one subframe in which the first UE engages in the downlink communication.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

serving, by a base station, a first user equipment device (UE) and a second UE concurrently on a time-division-duplex (TDD) carrier, wherein the TDD carrier is configurable by the base station to have a first TDD configuration defining a first sequence of uplink and downlink subframes and is also configurable by the base station to have a second TDD configuration defining a second sequence of uplink and downlink subframes, and wherein the second sequence is different from the first sequence;
making a determination, by the base station, that the second UE supports uplink beamforming, wherein the base station makes the determination based on information selected from a group consisting of (i) capability information indicating that the second UE supports the uplink beamforming and (ii) subscription information indicating that the second UE supports the uplink beamforming;
responsive to at least making the determination, configuring, by the base station, the TDD carrier to have the first TDD configuration for the serving of the first UE and to have the second TDD configuration for the serving of the second UE concurrently with the serving of the first UE, wherein the configuring causes the second UE to engage in an uplink communication in at least one subframe in which the first UE engages in a downlink communication;
and
responsive to at least making the determination, causing, by the base station, the second UE to apply the uplink beamforming to help minimize interference resulting from the second UE engaging in the uplink communication in the at least one subframe in which the first UE engages in the downlink communication.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.