DL CoMP SCHEDULING FOR A HETEROGENEOUS CELLULAR NETWORK
AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
InventorsJiandong Zhuang, Xiaodong Shi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A downlink Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) scheduling algorithm used in a cellular communications network is disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a downlink scheduler (42, 46) implementing the disclosed algorithm for a generic cell (24, 30) is provided. The cell downlink scheduler (42, 46) is used in the cellular communications network (22) to enable downlink CoMP scheduling within a cell cluster (36) including the cell (24, 30) and one or more other cells (24, 30). According to at least some embodiments, the distributed downlink CoMP scheduling for the cell cluster (36) effectively reduces inter-cell co-channel interference.
Claims33
A method of operation of a cell scheduler for a cell, the cell scheduler used in a cellular communications network to enable downlink Coordinated Multipoint, CoMP, scheduling for a cell cluster comprising the cell and one or more other cells, comprising:
- sending, to the one or more other cells in the cell cluster for downlink CoMP, scheduling information that is indicative of resource blocks from a defined set of resource blocks that are scheduled, by initial downlink scheduling, for one or more wireless devices that are connected to the cell and associated with the cell cluster for downlink CoMP over a transmit time interval;
- receiving, from each other cell in the cell cluster for downlink CoMP, scheduling information that is indicative of resource blocks from the defined set of resource blocks that are scheduled, by initial downlink scheduling, for one or more other wireless devices that are connected to the other cell and associated with the cell cluster for downlink CoMP over the transmit time interval;
- and
- identifying a first subset of the defined set of resource blocks for a first downlink CoMP transmission mode and a second subset of the defined set of resource blocks for a second downlink CoMP transmission mode based on the scheduling information, the first and second subsets being disjoint subsets.
(canceled)
A base station of a cell of a cellular communications network, the base station operating to provide distributed downlink Coordinated Multipoint, CoMP, scheduling for a cell cluster comprising the cell and one or more other cells, comprising:
- at least one radio unit;
- at least one network interface;
- at least one processor;
- and
- memory containing software instructions executable by the at least one processor whereby the base station is operative to:
- send, to the one or more other cells in the cell cluster for downlink CoMP, scheduling information that is indicative of resource blocks from a defined set of resource blocks that are scheduled, by initial downlink scheduling, for one or more wireless devices that are connected to the cell and associated with the cell cluster for downlink CoMP over a transmit time interval;
- receive, from each other cell of the one or more other cells comprised in the cell cluster for downlink CoMP, scheduling information that is indicative of resource blocks from the defined set of resource blocks that are scheduled, by initial downlink scheduling, for one or more other wireless devices that are connected to the other cell and associated with the cell cluster for downlink CoMP over the transmit time interval;
- and
- identify a first subset of the defined set of resource blocks for a first downlink CoMP transmission mode and a second subset of the defined set of resource blocks for a second downlink CoMP transmission mode based on the scheduling information, the first and second subsets of the defined set of resource blocks being disjoint subsets.
33-35. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.