Network-based inter-cell power control for multi-channel wireless networks

1. A method for operating a cellular network, where said cellular network uses a plurality of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) bands for wireless communication from at least one user equipment (UE) to at least one base station (NodeB), comprising:

computing at least one band-specific cell parameter for at least one FDM band of the plurality of FDM bands;

transmitting said band-specific cell parameter from a first NodeB serving a first cell to a second NodeB serving a second cell; and

wherein said cellular network uses a first FDM band for multiplexing physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) UEs and a second FDM band for multiplexing physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) UEs.

2. Method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a group of FDM bands for which the computed band-specific cell parameter value belongs to a pre-determined set of values; and

wherein transmitting said band-specific cell parameter comprises transmitting information reflective of the identified group of FDM bands.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein first NodeB and second NodeB are the same.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing a band-specific cell parameter for a first FDM band comprises:

performing UE scheduling decisions at the first NodeB for the first cell; and

processing said UE scheduling decisions at the first NodeB to compute the value for the band-specific cell parameter.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said band-specific cell parameter for the first FDM band is selected from a group consisting of: identities of UEs scheduled on the first FDM band, indicators if UEs scheduled on first FDM band belong to a class of high-interference UEs, number of UEs scheduled on first FDM band, power configurations of UEs scheduled on first FDM band, modulation of UEs scheduled on first FDM band, channel coding information for UEs scheduled on first FDM band, and schedule duration for UEs scheduled on first FDM band.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing band-specific cell parameter for a first FDM band comprises:

performing band-specific measurements for at least the first FDM band at the first NodeB for the first cell; and

processing said band-specific measurements at the first NodeB to compute a value for said band-specific cell parameter.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said band-specific measurement is made using received samples from at least the first FDM band, and wherein said band-specific measurement is selected from a group consisting of: interference power measurement, thermal noise power measurement, received signal power measurement, signal-to-interference-power-ratio (SIR) measurement, signal-to-interference-and-thermal-noise-power (SINR) measurement, rise-over thermal (RoT) measurement, throughput measurement, and cell-edge throughput measurement.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said band-specific measurement is quantized to produce said band-specific cell parameter.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein transmission occurs whenever said band-specific parameter value belongs to a pre-determined set of values.

10. The method of claim 1 , where said first FDM band comprises a plurality of FDM bands.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each said FDM band is an integral multiple of 180 kHz.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said wireless communication between UEs and NodeBs comprises a DFT pre-coder operation.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving another band-specific cell parameter from said second NodeB; and

adjusting use of at least said one FDM band from the plurality of FDM bands, in response to said received band-specific cell parameter.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein adjusting use of at least one said FDM band comprises scheduling a UE transmission on the FDM band in the first cell to avoid interference from use of the first FDM band by a different UE in the second cell.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein adjusting use of at least said one FDM band comprises sending at least one band-specific power configuration message to a UE served by the first NodeB.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving at the UE a first power configuration message for a first FDM band;

receiving at the UE a second power configuration message for a second FDM band;

receiving at the UE a scheduling message indicative of a selection of an FDM band from a plurality of FDM bands that includes a first FDM band and a second FDM band;

transmitting by the UE on the first FDM band with the first power configuration if said scheduling message indicated a selection of a first FDM band; and

transmitting by the UE on the second FDM band with the second power configuration if said scheduling message indicated a selection of the second FDM band.

17. A base station (NodeB) apparatus for use in a cellular network, wherein said cellular network uses a plurality of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) bands for wireless communication from user equipment (UE) to the NodeB, comprising:

a processor connected to a memory circuit for holding instructions for execution by the processor, wherein the processor is operable to compute at least one band-specific cell parameter;

a transmitter controllably coupled to the processor, the transmitter having an output for coupling to an inter-NodeB backhaul network, the transmitter being operable to transmit the computed band-specific cell parameter via the inter-NodeB backhaul network; and

wherein said cellular network uses a first FDM band for multiplexing physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) UEs and a second FDM band for multiplexing physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) UEs.

18. The NodeB of claim 17 , further comprising:

a receiver coupled to a processor, the receiver having an input for coupling to the inter-NodeB backhaul network, wherein the receiver is operable to receive at least one band-specific cell parameter via the inter-NodeB backhaul network.