IN A RADIO NETWORK ENVIRONMENT, REDUCING INTERFERENCE AMONG OVERLAPPING CELLS.

摘要

Disclosed is a method for a femtocell (104) to reduce interference with an overlapping macrocell (100). The femtocell (104) determines (300) soft-frequency-reuse ("SFR") information of the macrocell (100). From that information, the femtocell (104) determines (302) which frequency sub-channels are assigned by the macrocell (100) for its cell-center users and which frequency sub-channels are assigned for cell-edge users. (Cell-edge users are given a higher transmission power profile in order to overcome potential interference with neighboring macrocells.) Then, the femtocell (104) selects (304) from the cell-center user frequency sub-channels for transmission to the femtocell's users. By transmitting on the cell-center user frequency sub-channels, the femtocell (104) reduces interference with the overlapping macrocell (100). The femtocell (104) continues to update (300) its knowledge of the macrocell's SFR information and re-assigns (304) frequency sub-channels as the SFR changes. If the macrocell (100) detects (404) that one of its cell-center users is "close enough" to the femtocell (104), then the macrocell (100) re-assigns (408) the cell-center user as a cell-edge user to overcome interference.