Operation of a heterogeneous wireless network by determining location of a wireless device

摘要

A heterogeneous wireless communication network includes a macrocell base station that one or more low power nodes. The location of a wireless device is estimated based on feedback reports received from the wireless device in response to downlink transmissions of a reference signal. Based on the estimated location, a schedule for future transmissions of the reference signal to the wireless device are determined. The schedule specifies a frequency of transmission of the reference signals. The schedule specifies downlink transmission antenna configuration to be used for the reference signal transmissions.

主权项

1. A method for scheduling downlink reference signal transmissions in a heterogeneous wireless network comprising a plurality of transmission point groups made up from a macrocell base station and at least one low power node (LPN), serving a plurality user equipment (UEs), the method comprising:
generating a first schedule of downlink reference signal transmissions such that each entry in the first schedule identifies a first transmission time slot, a first transmission point group that transmits the downlink reference signal and a first UE that produces a first measurement report; generating a second schedule of downlink reference signal transmissions such that each entry in the second schedule identifies a second transmission time slot, a second transmission point group that transmits the downlink reference signal and a second UE that produces a second measurement report; wherein the first and the second schedules define transmission time slots such that a given time slot included in the second schedule is excluded from the first schedule; wherein the first schedule is designed to receive the first measurement report from a given UE at a first repetition frequency that is smaller than a second repetition frequency with which the second measurement report is received from the given UE; and wherein entries in the second schedule identify reference signal transmission from the second transmission point group to the second UE only when the second transmission point group is also being used to transmit user data to the second UE.