Methods and network nodes for performing a joint reception in a cellular radio communication network

A node in a cellular radio communication network configured to act as a serving node when performing a joint reception, the node being adapted for scheduling traffic for joint reception, the node comprising:

• a user equipment selector configured to select user equipment units (UE1) for joint reception;
• a cooperating node selector configured to select cooperating nodes for the joint reception;
• a radio element selector configured to select radio resource elements for the joint reception, wherein each radio resource element consists of at least one part of the radio resources available for uplink transmissions, the available radio resource being defined by a time period (T) comprising at least one sub-frame defining a minimum time for one transmission (TTI), and a frequency band comprising a plurality of sub-bands provided for scheduling in the cellular radio communication network;
• a joint reception requester configured to order joint reception data from selected cooperating nodes by transmitting ordering messages to the selected cooperating nodes, which ordering messages identifies the selected radio resource elements;
• a user equipment allocator being configured to allocate selected user equipment units (UE1) for uplink transmission including being configured to transmit allocating messages to allocated user equipment units (UE1), which allocating messages identifies the selected radio resource elements;
• and
• a backhaul capacity obtainer configured to obtain a backhaul capacity of selected cooperating nodes,
• the radio element selector being adapted to select radio resource elements based on a determined backhaul capacity.

A method in a cellular radio communication network, including participating in joint reception, wherein an uplink transmission of a user equipment (UE1, UE2) is received by a plurality of reception nodes, one of the reception nodes being a serving node, at least one of the reception nodes being a cooperating node, each cooperating node being provided to obtain data for joint reception from the received uplink transmission and forward the obtained data to the serving node, the method being performed by a cooperating node and comprising:

• receiving an order for joint reception of at least two radio resource elements from the serving node;
• receiving the at least two radio resource elements;
• transmitting an indication of backhaul capacity to the serving node, which backhaul capacity comprises one or more of an indication of latency, and an indication of available bandwidth for sending the obtained data on to the serving node, and an indication of computing capacity of the cooperating node, wherein the backhaul capacity includes an indication of computing capacity of the cooperating node;
• obtaining data from each received radio resource element;
• forwarding the obtained data to the serving node;
• and
• prioritizing at least one radio resource element of the at least two radio resource elements before forwarding the obtained data, the data obtained from the prioritized radio resource element being forwarded before the data obtained from the other radio resource element.

A node configured to act as a cooperating node when performing a joint reception in a cellular radio communication network, the node being adapted for obtaining data for joint reception from uplink transmission and forward the obtained data to a serving node, the node comprising:

• an order obtainer configured to receive orders for joint reception of radio resource elements from the serving node;
• an uplink transmissions obtainer configured to receive the radio resource elements from user equipment units (UE1);
• a capacity messenger configured to transmit an indication of backhaul capacity to the serving node;
• comprising a capacity determiner configured to determine a capacity for receiving transmissions, obtaining data and forwarding the obtained data to the serving node, and the capacity messenger being adapted to indicate backhaul capacity based on the determined capacity;
• a data obtainer configured to obtain data from received radio resource elements;
• a data messenger configured to forward the obtained data to the serving node and
• an element prioritizing unit configured to employ a prioritization of the radio resource elements, the data obtained from the prioritized radio resource element being forwarded by the data messenger before the data obtained from the other radio resource element.