Method, apparatus and computer program for power control to mitigate interference

An apparatus comprising:

• a non-transitory memory storing computer program instructions, and a processor;
• in which the memory with the computer program instructions is configured with the processor to cause the apparatus to at least:
• determine at a base station of a cellular network that a device-to-device communication of a first user equipment on a radio resource with a second user equipment interferes with a communication by a third user equipment on the radio resource with the base station, in which the first user equipment and the second user equipment comprise mobile terminals which use the radio resource for device-to-device communications;
• and
• manage the interference by the base station controlling transmit power of at least one of the first user equipment, the second user equipment, and the third user equipment, where the base station controls the transmit power based, at least partially, upon at least one measurement received by the base station from the first user equipment, the second user equipment, or both the first and second user equipment,
• where the memory with the computer program instructions is configured with the processor to cause the apparatus to allocate the radio resource to the third user equipment for communicating with the base station, and to allocate by the base station the radio resource at least to one of the first user equipment and the second user equipment for communicating with one another via the device-to-device communication and to the third user equipment for communicating by the third user equipment to the base station, wherein controlling the transmit power comprises the base station sending initial power control targets for different bandwidth zones and backoff values to at least one of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, and sending only up/down power control signals to at least one of the first user equipment and the second user equipment for device-to-device transmit power adjustments once a connection between the first and second user equipment is already established, and wherein controlling the transmit power is performed to meet a quality target based on quantified interference between the device-to-device communication and the communication between the third user equipment and the base station.