System and method for semi-static downlink inter-cell interference coordination for wireless communications

1. A method of operating a base station in a wireless system, the method comprising:

partitioning a frequency band into at least one band of a first type and at least one band of a second type, wherein

the at least one band of the first type comprises a fractional frequency reuse (FFR) band on which the base station transmits power proportional to a distance of a user device from the base station,

the at least one band of the second type comprises a non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) band on which the base station transmits a data rate inversely proportional to a distance of a user device from the base station; and

coordinating the partitioning with at least one further base station, the coordinating comprising adjusting a bandwidth partition between the FFR band and the non-FFR band of the base station to be similar to a bandwidth partition between a FFR band and a non-FFR band of at least one further base station.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the partitioning of the frequency band.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

the base station scheduling a cell edge user device on at least one FFR band; and

the base station scheduling a cell center user on at least one non-FFR band.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein coordinating further comprises:

receiving power change information from the at least one further base station; and

transmitting power change information to the at least one further base station.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein receiving power change information and transmitting power change information comprises signaling the at least one further base station using X2 signaling.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base station comprises an eNB operating on a long-term evolution (LTE) network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

partitioning comprises

partitioning the frequency band according to an initial configuration, and

changing a power setting of the at least one band of the first type; and

coordinating further comprises

transmitting the changed power setting to at least one user device,

informing the at least one further base station of the changed power setting, and

changing the bandwidth partition between the FFR band and the non-FFR band after changing the power setting.

8. A method of operating a base station configured to communicate with user devices, the method comprising:

receiving signal information from the user devices, the signal information comprising information about signals received by the user devices;

classifying the users devices as cell edge users (CEUs) or cell center users (CCUs) based on the signal information;

scheduling the CEUs to high power resource blocks of fractional frequency reuse (FFR) bands within a frequency band;

scheduling the CCUs in non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) bands of the frequency band; and

semi-statically updating a partition between the FFR bands and the non-FFR bands;

scheduling CEUs reporting more neighbor cells with higher priority than CEUs reporting less neighboring cells when all of the CEUs cannot be scheduled in the high power resource blocks of the FFR bands; and

scheduling remaining CEUs in non-FFR bands of the frequency band.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the signal information comprises reference signal received power reports (RSRPs).

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein scheduling the CCUs further comprises scheduling CCUs in low power resource blocks of the FFR bands.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising scheduling remaining CCUs in the high power resource blocks of the FFR bands if a channel resource of the non-FFR bands and low power resource blocks of the FFR bands are not enough to fit all of the CCUs.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the base station comprises an eNB operating on a long-term evolution (LTE) network.

13. A method of communicating in a wireless system, the method comprising:

configuring a cell in a network with an initial configuration of fractional frequency reuse (FFR) bands and non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) bands, wherein the initial configuration assigns a power setting to a low power setting and a high power setting of the FFR bands;

changing the power setting of the FFR bands in the cell to a changed power setting;

informing a user device of the changed power setting;

changing a bandwidth partition between non-FFR bands and FFR bands after changing the power setting of the FFR bands, the changing the bandwidth partition comprising adjusting the bandwidth partition between the FFR bands and the non-FFR bands at the cell to be similar to a bandwidth partition between FFR bands and non-FFR bands at least one neighboring cell; and

informing the at least one neighboring cell of the changed power setting.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein informing the user device comprising signaling power change information though radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein informing the at least one neighboring cell comprises using X2 signaling.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the X2 signaling comprises a modified relative narrowband transmit power signaling.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the X2 signaling comprises introducing a new X2 message as an overload indicator.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein changing the bandwidth partition is performed through a network re-configuration message.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the cell comprises a base station.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the initial configuration is based on a network-wide initial configuration.

21. A base station comprising:

a transmitter;

a communications interface configured to interface with at least one further base station; and

a processor configured to partition a frequency band into at least one band of a first type and at least one band of a second type, wherein

the at least one band of the first type comprises a fractional frequency reuse (FFR) band on which the base station is configured to transmit on the transmitter using a power proportional to a distance of a user device from the base station,

the at least one band of the second type comprises a non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) band on which the base station is configured to transmit on the transmitter using a data rate inversely proportional to a distance of a user device from the base station,

the base station is configured to coordinate the partitioning with the at least one further base station via the communications interface; and

the base station is configured to adjust a bandwidth partition between the FFR band and the non-FFR band to be similar to a bandwidth partition between a FFR band and a non-FFR band of the at least one further base station.

22. The base station of claim 21 , wherein the communications interface comprises an X2 interface.

23. A method of operating a base station configured to communicate with user devices, the method comprising:

receiving signal information from the user devices, the signal information comprising information about signals received by the user devices;

classifying the users devices as cell edge users (CEUs) or cell center users (CCUs) based on the signal information;

scheduling the CEUs to high power resource blocks of fractional frequency reuse (FFR) bands within a frequency band;

scheduling the CCUs in non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) bands of the frequency band

scheduling CEUs reporting more neighbor cells with higher priority than CEUs reporting less neighboring cells when all of the CEUs cannot be scheduled in the high power resource blocks of the FFR bands; and

scheduling remaining CEUs in non-FFR bands of the frequency band.

24. A method of operating a base station configured to communicate with user devices, the method comprising:

receiving signal information from the user devices, the signal information comprising information about signals received by the user devices;

classifying the users devices as cell edge users (CEUs) or cell center users (CCUs) based on the signal information;

scheduling the CEUs to high power resource blocks of fractional frequency reuse (FFR) bands within a frequency band; and

scheduling the CCUs in non-fractional frequency reuse (non-FFR) bands of the frequency band, wherein scheduling the CCUs further comprises

scheduling CCUs in low power resource blocks of the FFR bands, and

scheduling remaining CCUs in the high power resource blocks of the FFR bands if a channel resource of the non-FFR bands and low power resource blocks of the FFR bands are not enough to fit all of the CCUs.