Method for UE Pattern Indication and Measurement for Interference Coordination
A method of inter-cell interference coordination is provided for UE measurements and network access procedure. In a first embodiment, a UE in idle mode performs measurements on received radio signals applying a simplified radio resource restriction for interference coordination. The UE determines the restricted radio resource without receiving explicit measurement configuration. In a second embodiment, during various phases of a network access procedure, the UE indicates its interference status and/or additional interference information to its serving base station to enhance interference coordination. In a third embodiment, the UE in connected mode performs measurements on both interference-protected transmission resources and non-interference-protected transmission resources. The UE measurement results are used for scheduling, radio link monitoring, and/or mobility management to increase radio spectrum efficiency and to improve user experience.
1 - 20 . (canceled)
21 . A method involving a serving cell provided by a macro base station and an interfering cell provided by a neighbor base station, the method comprising:
a) connecting to the macro base station by a user equipment (UE);
b) performing a first measurement by the UE and thereby obtaining a first measurement result, wherein the first measurement is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement of a transmission from the neighbor base station, wherein the first measurement is performed only on interference-protected resources;
c) performing a second measurement by the UE and thereby obtaining a second measurement result, wherein the second measurement is a measurement of a transmission from the macro base station, wherein the second measurement is performed on interference-protected resources;
d) performing a third measurement by the UE and thereby obtaining a third measurement result, wherein the third measurement is performed on non-interference-protected resources; and
e) transmitting the first measurement result, the second measurement result and the third measurement result from the UE to the macro base station for radio resource management, wherein (a) thru (e) are performed by the UE.
22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the interference-protected resources of (c) are interference-protected almost-blank subframes (ABS) for which the macro base station has applied ABS in a macro-pico scenario or in a macro-femto scenario.
23 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the interference-protected resources of (c) correspond to silenced subframes applied in macrocells in a Macro-Pico scenario or applied in femtocells in a Macro-Femto scenario.
24 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the third measurement performed by the UE in (d) is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement of a transmission from the macro base station made on all subframes, and wherein the second measurement performed by the UE in (c) is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement on ABS-only (almost-bank subframe-only) subframes.
25 . A method involving a serving cell provided by a macro base station and an interfering cell provided by a neighbor base station, the method comprising:
(a) connecting to a user equipment (UE) by the macro base station;
(b) receiving a first measurement result from the UE, wherein the first measurement result is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement of a transmission from the neighbor base station, wherein the first measurement is performed only on interference-protected resources;
(c) receiving a second measurement result from the UE, wherein the second measurement result is a measurement of a transmission from the macro base station, wherein the second measurement is performed on interference-protected resources;
(d) receiving a third measurement result from the UE, wherein the third measurement result is a result of a measurement performed on non-interference-protected resources; and
(e) performing radio resource management for the UE based on the first measurement result of (b), the second measurement result of (c) and the third measurement result of (d), wherein (a) through (e) are performed by the macro base station.
26 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the radio resource management in (e) involves mobility management based on received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) measurements.
27 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the second measurement result of (b) is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement result, wherein the third measurement result of (c) is a RSRP measurement result, and wherein the macro base station schedules the UE only on interference-protected resources if the second measurement result of (c) is higher than the third measurement result of (d).
28 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the second measurement result of (c) is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement result, wherein the third measurement result of (d) is a RSRP measurement result, and wherein the macro base station schedules the UE onto ABS slots (almost-blank subframe slots) if the second measurement result of (c) is higher than the third measurement result of (d).
29 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the second measurement result of (c) is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement result, wherein the third measurement result of (d) is a RSRP measurement result, and wherein the macro base station hands over the UE to another frequency band if both measurement results from (c) and (d) are below a threshold.
30 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the interference-protected resources of (c) are interference-protected almost-blank subframe (ABS) subframes for which the macro base station has applied ABS in a macro-pico scenario or in a macro-femto scenario.
31 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the interference-protected resources of (c) correspond to silenced subframes applied in macrocells in a Macro-Pico scenario or applied in femtocells in a Macro-Femto scenario.
32 . A method involving a serving cell provided by a macro base station and a neighbor cell provided by a neighbor base station, the method comprising:
(a) connecting to the macro base station by a user equipment (UE);
(b) performing a first measurement by the UE of resources that are protected at an edge of the serving cell for UEs in the serving cell and thereby obtaining a first measurement result, wherein the first measurement is a received signal reference power (RSRP) measurement, wherein the first measurement is performed only on interference-protected resources;
(c) performing a second measurement by the UE of resources that are protected at the edge of the serving cell for UEs in the neighbor cell, wherein the second measurement is an RSRP measurement, wherein the second measurement is performed only on interference-protected resources;
(d) performing a third measurement by the UE and thereby obtaining a third measurement result, wherein the third measurement is performed on non-interference-protected resources; and
(e) transmitting the first measurement result, the second measurement result and the third measurement result from the UE to the macro base station for radio resource management, wherein (b) thru (d) occur after (a) while the UE is in a connected mode, and wherein (a) thru (e) are performed by the UE.