Method of managing baseband resources in mobile communications networks implementing interference cancellation techniques

A mobile communications network comprising a base station, the base station including baseband resources, wherein at least one interference cancellation process for cancelling the interference caused by a mobile user is available to be implemented with the baseband resources, an amount of the baseband resources needed to implement the at least one interference cancellation process being dynamically allocated in relation to an amount of traffic of the mobile communications network such that a fixed amount of baseband resources are not allocated to the at least one interference cancellation process, the base station configured to:

• receive a demand for baseband resources from a mobile user;
• determine if there are any free baseband resources available for use by the mobile user;
• in response to determining that no free baseband resources are available for use by the mobile user, determine that an amount of the baseband resources is being used by at least one interference cancellation process for cancelling interference of one or more mobile users;
• and
• remove at least one mobile user of the one or more mobile users from the interference cancellation process so that an amount of the baseband resources is available for use by the mobile user making the demand.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a mobile communications network base station causes the base station to perform a method of managing baseband resources, wherein at least one interference cancellation process for cancelling the interference caused by a mobile user is available to be implemented with the baseband resources, an amount of the baseband resources needed to implement the at least one interference cancellation process being dynamically allocated in relation to an amount of traffic of the mobile communications network such that a fixed amount of baseband resources are not allocated to the at least one interference cancellation process, the method comprising:

• receiving a demand for baseband resources from a mobile user;
• determining if there are any free baseband resources available for use by the mobile user;
• in response to determining that no free baseband resources are available for use by the mobile user, determining that an amount of the baseband resources is being used by at least one interference cancellation process for cancelling interference of one or more mobile users;
• and
• removing at least one mobile user of the one or more mobile users from the interference cancellation process so that an amount of the baseband resources is available for use by the mobile user making the demand.