Use of power class as basis to control configuration of MU-MIMO service
AssigneeSprint Spectrum L.P.
InventorsSreekar Marupaduga, Rajveen Narendran
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Abstract
A method and system for controlling application of MU-MIMO. The disclosure provides for considering a device's power class as a basis to decide whether to provide the device with MU-MIMO service. For instance, a base station could determine which of the base station's served devices that are threshold distant from the base station are each a high power device rather than a lower power device. And on at least that basis, the base station could select each such device to receive MU-MIMO service. Or faced with a choice between devices to receive MU-MIMO service, the base station could compare the devices' power classes and could select the devices that have higher power class to receive MU-MIMO service.
Claims20
A method for controlling transmission over an air interface in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
- serving, by a base station, multiple user equipment devices (UEs) over the air interface, wherein each UE of the multiple UEs has a respective power class defining a maximum transmission power of the UE;
- selecting, by a base station, a plurality of UEs of the multiple UEs served by the base station, the selecting each UE of the plurality being based at least on (i) the UE being located at least a predefined threshold distance from the base station and (ii) the respective power class of the UE;
- and
- based on the selecting, configuring by the base station MU-MIMO service of each selected UE, while serving by the base station each other UE of the plurality of UEs without use of MU-MIMO.
A base station operable in a wireless communication system to control transmission over an air interface, the base station comprising:
- an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas for communicating over the air interface, wherein the air interface defines physical channel resources for carrying data wirelessly from the base station to multiple user equipment devices (UEs) served by the base station, wherein each UE of the multiple UEs has a respective power class defining a maximum transmission power of the UE;
- and
- a controller for scheduling use of the physical channel resources to carry data wirelessly from the base station to the UEs,
- wherein the controller is configured to select to serve with Multi-User Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) a plurality of UEs of the multiple UEs, the selecting to serve with MU-MIMO each UE of the plurality being based at least on (i) the UE being located at least a predefined threshold distance from the base station and (ii) the power class of the UE,
- wherein the controller is further configured, based on the selecting, to cause the base station to provide MU-MIMO service to each selected UE while the base station serves each other UE of the plurality of UEs without use of MU-MIMO.
A base station operable in a wireless communication system to control transmission over an air interface, the base station comprising:
- an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas for communicating over the air interface, wherein the air interface defines physical channel resources for carrying data wirelessly from the base station to multiple user equipment devices (UEs) served by the base station, wherein each UE of the multiple UEs has a respective power class defining a maximum transmission power of the UE;
- and
- a controller for scheduling use of the physical channel resources to carry data wirelessly from the base station to the UEs,
- wherein, when a UE served by the base station is located more than a predefined threshold distance from the base station, the base station is configured to control whether to serve the UE with Multi-User Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) with the controlling being based on the power class of the UE.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.