Measuring communicating and using interference information
Apparatus and methods of performing interference mitigation in a communication network. The interference mitigation can include a controller sending a message to a first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a first wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics; the controller receiving from the first access point signal measurement information; and the controller communicating at least some of the signal measurement information received from the first access point to a second access point.
1. A method of performing interference mitigation in a communication network, the method comprising:
a controller sending a message to a first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a first wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics, the measurement of the at least one signal being used by the first access point in calculating an interference cost associated with the first wireless terminal;
the controller receiving from the first access point signal measurement information including the calculated interference cost; and
the controller communicating at least some of the signal measurement information, including the calculated interference cost, received from the first access point to a second access point responsible for scheduling uplink transmissions of the first wireless terminal in accordance with the interference cost.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control node comprises a control module located at a network control device, network peer devices, or a combination of a network control device and network peer devices.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a coverage area of the second access point overlaps with a coverage area of the first access point.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
a message to a second access point instructing the second access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a second wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics;
recovering signal measurement information from the signal received from the second access point; and
communicating at least some of the signal measurement information received from the second access point to the first access point.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message to the first access point instructing the first access point to measure the signal instructs the first access point to measure a signal transmitted by the first wireless terminal on an uplink channel.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the signal transmitted by the first wireless terminal is an uplink signal.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the uplink signal is a pilot signal or an uplink reference signal.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising communicating transmission information to the first access point, the information comprising a transmission timing offset, a pseudo-random time-frequency hopping pattern or a scrambling code.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising communicating to the first access point information mapping physical resources to logical time-frequency resource units which may be assigned by the second access point to the first wireless terminal.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first access point includes stored information mapping logical time-frequency resource units to a device identifier used by the first wireless terminal, the second access point providing the device identifier to the first access point.
11. A control node comprising:
a transmitter module configured to send a message to a first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a first wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics, wherein the measurement of the at least one signal is used by the first access point in calculating an interference cost associated with the first wireless terminal;
a receiver module configured to receiving from the first access point signal measurement information including the calculated interference cost; and
a measurement information communication module configured to communicate at least some of the signal measurement information, including the calculated interference cost, received from the first access point to a second access point responsible for scheduling uplink transmissions of the first wireless terminal in accordance with the interference cost.
12. The control node of claim 11 , wherein the control node comprises a control module located at a network control device, network peer devices, or a combination of a network control device and network peer devices.
13. The control node of claim 11 , further comprising an instruction measurement signal generation module configured to generate the message to a first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a first wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics.
14. The control node of claim 11 , wherein a coverage area of the second access point overlaps with a coverage area of the first access point.
15. The control node of claim 11 , wherein:
the instruction measurement signal generation module is further configured to generate a message to a second access point instructing the second access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a second wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics;
the transmitter module is further configured to transmit the generated message to the second access point instructing the second access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a second wireless terminal communicating a signal having a known waveform;
the receiver module is further configured to receive signals including a signal from the second access point conveying signal measurement information;
a measurement information recovery module configured to recover signal measurement information from the received signal from the second access point signal measurement information; and
the measurement information communications module is further configured to communicate at least some of the signal measurement information received from the second access point to the first access point.
16. The control node of claim 11 , wherein the signal to the first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal instructs the first access point to measure a signal transmitted by the first wireless terminal on an uplink control channel.
17. The control node of claim 16 , wherein the signal transmitted by the first wireless terminal is an uplink reference signal.
18. The control node of claim 17 , wherein the uplink reference signal is a pilot signal.
19. The control node of claim 11 , further comprising a hopping information communications module configured to communicate to the first access point frequency hopping information corresponding the first wireless terminal.
20. The control node of claim 19 , further comprising a resource mapping communications module configured to communicate to the first access point information mapping physical resources to logical time-frequency resource units which may be assigned by the second access point to the first wireless terminal.
21. The control node of claim 20 , wherein the first access point includes stored information mapping logical time-frequency resource units to a device identifier used by the first wireless terminal, the second access point providing the device identifier to the first access point.
22. The control node of claim 11 , wherein the transmit and receive module are configured to transmit and receive signals over wired or wireless communication channels.
23. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed cause a controller to perform the operations of:
sending a message to a first access point instructing the first access point to measure at least one signal transmitted by a first wireless terminal communicating a signal having known characteristics, wherein the measurement of the at least one signal is used by the first access point in calculating an interference cost associated with the first wireless terminal;
receiving from the first access point signal measurement information including the calculated interference cost; and
communicating at least some of the signal measurement information, including the calculated interference cost, received from the first access point to a second access point responsible for scheduling uplink transmissions of the first wireless terminal in accordance with the interference cost.
24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 23 , wherein the operations further comprise communicating transmission information to the first access point, the communication information comprising a transmission timing offset, a pseudo-random time-frequency hopping pattern or a scrambling code.
25. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 23 , wherein the operations further comprise communicating to the first access point information mapping physical resources to logical time-frequency resource units which may be assigned by the second access point to the first wireless terminal.