Femtocell base station, and a method of radio communication in a network comprising a femtocell base station
AssigneeAlcatel Lucent
InventorsHolger Claussen, Irwin O Kennedy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided of radio communication in a radio communications network comprising a macrocell base station and a femtocell base station. The method comprises the femtocell base station: transmitting in a first radio frequency band that is allocated to the macrocell, and detecting that a user terminal that is connected to the macrocell base station is in the femtocell. In response to said detecting the user terminal as being in the femtocell, the femtocell base station ceases to use that frequency band at least in the region in which the user terminal is located so as to avoid unacceptable interference to the user terminal.
Claims20
A method of radio communication in a radio communications network comprising a macrocell base station and a femtocell base station, the method comprising:
- the femtocell base station transmitting in a first radio frequency band that is allocated to the macrocell;
- the femtocell base station detecting that a user terminal that is connected to the macrocell base station is in the femtocell;
- and
- the femtocell base station in response to said detecting that the user terminal is in the femtocell, ceasing to use frequency band at least in the region in which the user terminal is located so as to avoid unacceptable interference to the user terminal;
- and
- wherein the first radio frequency band use by the femtocell base station is stopped for a predetermined time interval upon the user being identified as being in the femtocell;
- and
- wherein the first radio frequency band use by the femtocell base station is restarted after said time interval, and upon the user terminal being identified as still in the femtocell use of the first frequency band is ceased again and the time interval to be used subsequently is extended.
A femtocell base station for radio communications comprising:
- a transmitter configured to transmit in a first radio frequency band;
- a detector configured to detect that a user terminal that is connected using the first radio frequency band to a macrocell base station has entered the femtocell;
- and
- a controller configured to respond to an indication from the detector that the user terminal is in the femtocell by controlling the transmitter so as to cease to use the first radio frequency band at least in the region in which the user terminal is located so as to avoid unacceptable interference to the user terminal;
- wherein the femtocell base station stops use of the first radio frequency band for a predetermined time interval upon the user being identified as being in the femtocell;
- and
- wherein the femtocell base station restarts use of the first radio frequency band after said time interval. and again ceases use of the first radio frequency ban upon the user terminal being identified as still in the femtocell and subsequently extends the time interval to be used.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.