Granted Patent B2

US 8,280,427 · App. 12/622,014 · Granted Oct 2, 2012

Abstract

Claims (63)

1. A method comprising:

measuring at an apparatus received power of a first signal received from a first entity, and measuring at the apparatus received power of a second signal received from a second entity;

determining by the apparatus a gain factor using the measured received powers of the first signal and of the second signal; and

forwarding a signal by either:

for the case in which transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity is considered as a benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a second signal transmit power and forwarding the second signal from the apparatus to the first entity using the determined second signal transmit power; or

for the case in which the transmit power from the apparatus to the first entity is considered as the benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a first signal transmit power and forwarding the first signal from the apparatus to the second entity using the determined first signal transmit power,

in which the apparatus comprises at least one relay node comprising M antennas on which the first signal and the second signal are received, and N antennas from which at least one of the first signal and the second signal are forwarded, in which N and M are integers and at least one of M and N is greater than one.

2. The method according to claim 1 , in which:

determining the gain factor comprises determining a gain matrix and storing the gain matrix in the apparatus;

and using the gain factor comprises using at least one gain factor from the stored gain matrix.

3. The method according to claim 2 , in which the gain matrix is a diagonal matrix.

4. The method according to claim 2 , in which the first signal transmit power or the second signal transmit power is determined separately for each of the N transmit antennas, in which N is an integer greater than one.

5. The method according to claim 2 , executed by a plurality of L relay stations operating in concert with one another;

such that across all L relay stations there is a total of M antennas on which the first signal is received; and

such that across all L relay stations there is a total of N antennas from which are forwarded the said at least one of the first signal and the second signal.

6. The method according to claim 1 , in which:

the first signal received from the first entity is a downlink signal received from a base station;

the second signal received from the second entity is an uplink signal received from a user equipment;

the transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity which is the user equipment is considered as the benchmark; and

the second signal transmit power is determined using a ratio of the measured receive power of the uplink signal received from the user equipment to the measured receive power of the downlink signal received from the base station.

7. The method according to claim 1 , in which:

the first signal received from the first entity is a downlink signal received from a base station;

the second signal received from the second entity is an uplink signal received from a user equipment;

the transmit power from the apparatus to the first entity which is the base station is considered as the benchmark; and

the first signal transmit power is determined using a ratio of the measured receive power of the downlink signal received from the base station to the measured receive power of the uplink signal received from the user equipment.

8. The method according to claim 1 , in which the method is repeated for each of a series of transmission periods.

9. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform:

measuring received power of a first signal received from a first entity, and measuring received power of a second signal received from a second entity;

determining a gain factor using the measured received powers of the first signal and of the second signal; and

forwarding a signal by either:

for the case in which transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity is considered as a benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a second signal transmit power and forwarding the second signal from the apparatus to the first entity using the determined second signal transmit power; or

for the case in which the transmit power from the apparatus to the first entity is considered as the benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a first signal transmit power and forwarding the first signal from the apparatus to the second entity using the determined first signal transmit power

where in the apparatus comprises a relay node comprising M antennas on which the first signal and the second signal are received, and N antennas from which at least one of the first signal and the second signal are forwarded, in which N and M are integers and at least one of M and N is greater than one.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , in which:

determining the gain factor comprises determining a gain matrix and storing the gain matrix in the memory;

and using the gain factor comprises using at least one gain factor from the stored gain matrix.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , in which the gain matrix is a diagonal matrix.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 , in which the first signal transmit power or the second signal transmit power is determined separately for each of the N transmit antennas, in which N is an integer greater than one.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9 , in which:

the first signal received from the first entity is a downlink signal received from a base station;

the second signal received from the second entity is an uplink signal received from a user equipment;

the transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity which is the user equipment is considered as the benchmark; and

the second signal transmit power is determined using a ratio of the measured receive power of the uplink signal received from the user equipment to the measured receive power of the downlink signal received from the base station.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9 , in which:

the first signal received from the first entity is a downlink signal received from a base station;

the second signal received from the second entity is an uplink signal received from a user equipment;

the transmit power from the apparatus to the first entity which is the base station is considered as the benchmark; and

the first signal transmit power is determined using a ratio of the measured receive power of the downlink signal received from the base station to the measured receive power of the uplink signal received from the user equipment.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9 , in which the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured with the at least one processor to cause the apparatus to perform the said measuring, determining and forwarding for each of a series of transmission periods.

16. A memory storing a computer readable program of instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform actions comprising:

measuring received power of a first signal received from a first entity, and measuring received power of a second signal received from a second entity;

determining a gain factor using the measured received powers of the first signal and of the second signal; and

forwarding a signal by either:

for the case in which transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity is considered as a benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a second signal transmit power and forwarding the second signal from the apparatus to the first entity using the determined second signal transmit power; or

for the case in which the transmit power from the apparatus to the first entity is considered as the benchmark, using the gain factor to determine a first signal transmit power and forwarding the first signal from the apparatus to the second entity using the determined first signal transmit power

in which:

the first signal received from the first entity is a downlink signal received from a base station;

the second signal received from the second entity is an uplink signal received from a user equipment;

the transmit power from the apparatus to the second entity which is the user equipment is considered as the benchmark; and

the second signal transmit power is determined using a ratio of the measured receive power of the uplink signal received from the user equipment to the measured receive power of the downlink signal received from the base station.

Assignments (8)