Mitigation of interference between communication terminals in TD-LTE

1. A method for communication, comprising:

communicating between one or more first base stations and first wireless communication terminals using a first alternating pattern of downlink time intervals and uplink time intervals;

selecting a time offset between the first alternating pattern and a second alternating pattern that is used by one or more second base stations for communicating with second wireless communication terminals, so as to minimize impact of interference between the first and second wireless communication terminals; and

synchronizing the first base stations relative to the second base stations according to the selected time offset,

wherein each of the first and second alternating patterns comprises one or more uplink sub-frames, one or more downlink sub-frames, and one or more special sub-frames containing respective uplink and downlink regions, and comprising applying an interference mitigation process to reduce the interference during the special sub-frames, and

wherein applying the interference mitigation process comprises distinguishing between a first subset of the special sub-frames that are subjected to the interference and a second subset of the special sub-frames that are not subjected to the interference, and performing at least one of:

processing only the special sub-frames in the second subset; and

activating the interference mitigation process only during the special sub-frames in the first subset.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second alternating patterns are specified in accordance with a Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) specification, and wherein the downlink time intervals and the uplink time intervals comprise TD-LTE sub-frames.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the first and second alternating patterns comprises one or more uplink sub-frames and one or more downlink sub-frames, and wherein selecting the time offset comprises minimizing an overlap between the uplink sub-frames in one of the first and second alternating patterns and the downlink sub-frames in the other of the first and second alternating patterns.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the special sub-frames contain synchronization signals, and wherein applying the interference mitigation process comprises reducing the interference to the synchronization signals.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the special sub-frames contain synchronization signals, and wherein applying the interference mitigation process comprises obtaining synchronization using alternative means other than the synchronization signals.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a given wireless communication terminal comprises multiple receive antennas, and comprising canceling the interference by weighting respective signals received via the multiple receive antennas.

7. The method according to claim 1 , and comprising allocating data transmissions to the first terminals only during predefined times during the first alternating pattern in which the interference from the second alternating pattern is known not to be present.

8. The method according to claim 1 , and comprising communicating with the first terminals using a first communication scheme during predefined times in the first alternating pattern in which the interference from the second alternating pattern is known to be present, and using a second communication scheme, less robust than the first scheme, outside the predefined times.

9. The method according to claim 1 , and comprising setting in the first terminals a first receiver chain setting during predefined times in the first alternating pattern in which the interference from the second alternating pattern is known to be present, and setting a second receiver chain setting, less robust than the first setting, outside the predefined times.

10. A wireless communication terminal, comprising:

a transceiver, which is configured to communicate with a first base station using a first alternating pattern of downlink time intervals and uplink time intervals, wherein the first alternating pattern is synchronized relative to a second alternating pattern that is used by a second base station for communicating with at least another wireless communication terminal while applying between the first and second patterns a time offset selected so as to minimize impact of interference between the terminal and the other terminal; and

a processor, which is configured to apply an interference mitigation process for reducing residual interference caused by the second pattern,

wherein each of the first and second alternating patterns comprises one or more uplink sub-frames, one or more downlink sub-frames, and one or more special sub-frames containing respective uplink and downlink regions, and

wherein the processor is configured to apply the interference mitigation process during the special sub-frames, to distinguish between a first subset of the special sub-frames that are subjected to the interference and a second subset of the special sub-frames that are not subjected to the interference, and to perform at least one of:

processing only the special sub-frames in the second subset; and

activating the interference mitigation process only during the special sub-frames in the first subset.

11. The terminal according to claim 10 , wherein the first and second alternating patterns are specified in accordance with a Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) specification, and wherein the downlink time intervals and the uplink time intervals comprise TD-LTE sub-frames.

12. The terminal according to claim 10 , wherein the special sub-frames contain synchronization signals, and wherein the processor is configured to reduce the residual interference to the synchronization signals by applying the interference mitigation process.

13. The terminal according to claim 10 , wherein the special sub-frames contain synchronization signals, and wherein the processor is configured to obtain synchronization with the first base station using alternative means other than the synchronization signals.

14. The terminal according to claim 10 , and comprising multiple receive antennas, wherein the processor is configured to cancel the residual interference by weighting respective signals received via the multiple receive antennas.

15. The terminal according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to cause the transceiver to communicate with the first base station using a first communication scheme during predefined times in the first alternating pattern in which the residual interference from the second alternating pattern is known to be present, and using a second communication scheme, less robust than the first scheme, outside the predefined times.

16. The terminal according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to set in the transceiver a first receiver chain setting during predefined times in the first alternating pattern in which the interference from the second alternating pattern is known to be present, and to set a second receiver chain setting, less robust than the first setting, outside the predefined times.