Neighbour Cell Quality Measurement in a Telecommunications System

A first method, executed in a first network node of a wireless communication system, for measuring a quality of a neighbor cell for mobility purposes, the method comprising:

• deriving a cell-specific silent grid, the cell-specific silent grid comprising resource elements having no data allocation;
• measuring signal interference over said grid during a measurement period;
• and
• estimating the quality of the neighbor cell based on the measured signal interference.

A first arrangement in a first network node, configured to:

• derive a cell-specific silent grid to measure a quality of a neighbor cell, the cell-specific silent grid comprising data resource elements with no data allocation;
• measure an inter-cell interference during said silent grid over a measurement period;
• and
• estimate the quality of the neighbor cell based on the measured signal interference.

A second method executed in a second network node of a wireless communication system, for configuring a cell-specific silent grid for use in neighbor cell quality measurements by a first network node of the wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises at least one of the following steps:

• configuring at least one of the resource elements in said cell-specific silent grid to have no data allocation, thereby achieving a cell-specific silent grid;
• configuring at least some of the resource elements in said cell-specific silent grid which can be used for data transmission to have no data allocation;
• randomizing the cell-specific silent grid in consecutive, in frequency and time, resource blocks;
• or
• changing the cell-specific silent grid randomly, in frequency and time.

A second arrangement in a second network node of a wireless communication system, said arrangement comprising at least one processor configured to:

• configure a cell-specific silent grid, for use in neighbor cell quality measurements by a first network node of a wireless communication system;
• configure at least one of the resource elements in said cell-specific silent grid to have no data allocation, thereby achieving a cell-specific silent grid;
• configure at least some of the resource elements in said cell-specific silent grid which can be used for data transmission, to have no data allocation, thereby achieving a cell-specific silent grid,
• randomize said cell-specific silent grid in consecutive, in frequency and time, resource blocks,
• change said cell-specific silent grid randomly, in frequency and time.