Method, apparatus and computer program product for allocating resources in wireless communication network

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a user equipment to a base station, a communication channel status report regarding device-to-device direct communication;

receiving, by the user equipment, resource allocation instructions generated by the base station based on at least the communication channel status report, wherein the resource allocation instructions is received based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on at least the communication channel status report; and

performing device-to-device direct communication between user equipments based on at least the received resource allocation instructions.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication channel status report is a status report of request to send/clear to send collision or a status report of data transmission quality of the user equipment in the device-to-device direct communication.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the status report of request to send/clear to send collision or the status report of the data transmission quality further comprises any combination of collision channel index, time stamp, location information, cell-edge/center indicator, and a neighbor cell list.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the cell-edge/center indicator is determined based on at least a weighting of any one of pathloss, user equipment power headroom, interference level, geometry factor and data packet size.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a base station, a communication channel status report from a user equipment in device-to-device direct communication;

generating, by the base station, resource allocation instructions based on at least the communication channel status report; and

transmitting, by the base station, the resource allocation instructions to the user equipment so that the user equipment performs device-to-device direct communication on the allocated resources, wherein the resource allocation instructions is transmitted based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on at least the communication channel status report.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the communication channel status report comprises a status report of request to send/clear to send collision or a status report of data transmission quality of the user equipment in the device-to-device direct communication, wherein the data transmission quality comprises at least one of block error rate, interference level on data channel, and quality indicator.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the status report of request to send/clear to send collision or the status report of data transmission quality further comprises any combination of collision channel index, time stamp, location information, cell-edge/center indicator and a neighbor cell list.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein when the collision is determined based on at least the request to send/clear to send collision information in the status report, the resource allocation instructions are transmitted to the user equipments in device-to-device direct communication after resource scheduling of cellular user equipments is adjusted according to the coordination of the base station with the another base station in the at least one neighbor cell.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein when the interference is determined based on at least the data transmission quality information in the status report, the resource allocation instructions are transmitted to the user equipments in device-to-device direct communication after resource scheduling of cellular user equipments is adjusted according to the coordination of the base station with the another base station in the at least one neighbor cell.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor and at least one memory including compute program code,

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

transmit a communication channel status report regarding device-to-device direct communication to a base station;

receive resource allocation instructions generated by the base station based on at least the communication channel status report, wherein the resource allocation instructions is received based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on the communication channel status report; and

perform device-to-device direct communication between user equipments on the received resource allocation instructions.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the communication channel status report comprises a status report of request to send/clear to send collision or a status report of data transmission quality of the user equipment in the device-to-device direct communication.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the status report of request to send/clear to send collision or the status report of the data transmission quality further comprises any combination of collision channel index, time stamp, location information, cell-edge/center indicator, and a neighbor cell list.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to determine the cell-edge/center indicator based on at least a weighting of any one of pathloss, user equipment power headroom, interference level, geometry factor and data packet size.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor and at least one memory including compute program code,

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

receive a communication channel status report from a user equipment in device-to-device direct communication;

generate resource allocation instructions based on at least the communication channel status report; and

transmit the resource allocation instructions to the user equipment so that the user equipment performs device-to-device direct communication on the allocated resources, wherein the resource allocation instructions is transmitted based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on at least the communication channel status report.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the communication channel status report comprises a status report of request to send/clear to send collision or a status report of data transmission quality of the user equipment in the device-to-device direct communication.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the status report of request to send/clear to send collision or the status report of data transmission quality further comprises any combination of collision channel index, time stamp, location information, cell-edge/center indicator and a neighbor cell list.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein when the collision is determined based on at least the request to send/clear to send collision information in the status report, the apparatus is configured to transmit the resource allocation instructions to the user equipments in device-to-device direct communication via a dedicated signaling or broadcast after resource scheduling for cellular user equipments is adjusted according to the coordination of the base station with the another base station in the at least one neighbor cell.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein when the interference is determined based on at least the data transmission quality information in the status report, the apparatus is configured to transmit the resource allocation instructions to the user equipments in device-to-device direct communication after resource scheduling for cellular user equipments is adjusted according to the coordination of the base station with the another base station in the at least one neighbor cell.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform at least the following:

transmitting a communication channel status report regarding device-to-device direct communication to a base station;

receiving resource allocation instructions generated by the base station based on at least the communication channel status report, wherein the resource allocation instructions is received based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on at least the communication channel status report; and

performing device-to-device direct communication between user equipments on the received resource allocation instructions.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform at least the following:

receiving a communication channel status report from a user equipment in device-to-device direct communication;

generating resource allocation instructions based on at least the communication channel status report; and

transmitting the resource allocation instructions to the user equipment so that the user equipment performs device-to-device direct communication on the allocated resources, wherein the resource allocation instructions is transmitted based on at least the base station coordinating resources with another base station in at least one neighbor cell, when a collision and/or interference between user equipments in device-to-device direct communication and at least one cellular user equipment in the at least one neighbor cell is determined based on at least the communication channel status report.