Almost-blank subframe configuration detection in heterogeneous networks

A wireless terminal for use in a heterogeneous wireless communication network, the wireless terminal comprising:

• a one or more transceivers operative to transmit messages to and receive messages from an interfering macro cell and a low-power cell in the heterogeneous wireless communication network;
• and
• a processing circuit operatively associated with the one or more transceivers, and configured as:
• a first power metric calculator configured to calculate, for one or more resource blocks in a received signal that is received from the low-power cell, a first power metric as a function of channel response estimates determined for predicted common reference signal (CRS) resource element locations in a plurality of symbols;
• a second power metric calculator configured to calculate, for the one or more resource blocks in the received signal, a second power metric as a function of channel response estimates determined for the predicted CRS resource element locations in a single one of the plurality of symbols;
• a power metric comparer configured to compare a difference between the first and second power metrics to a threshold;
• and
• a macro cell mode determiner configured to determine whether the interfering macro cell is operating in a Multicast and Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) mode or a non-MBSFN mode based on the comparison, wherein the MBSFN mode corresponds to the difference being greater than or equal to the threshold, and the non-MBSFN mode corresponds to the difference being less than the threshold.