Radio resource allocation for cellular wireless networks

摘要

Various embodiments relate to cellular wireless networks, including networks made up of different types of base stations. Femtocell base stations typically operate at low transmit power and provide a limited area of wireless coverage. At times, femtocells are deployed within a coverage area of a macrocell and occupy some of the same frequency spectrum and timeslots as the macrocell. At times, transmissions from the femtocell may appear as interference to a user equipment terminal, further preventing it from accessing the macrocell. In some embodiments, a cellular wireless network allocates radio resource(s) to femtocells so that the transmissions from femtocells do not occupy the same radio resource blocks as those used by the macrocell for signalling; thereby preventing interference associated with signalling to cause a connection to be lost, or prevent a connection being set up.

主权项

1. A node of a radio communication network, the node implemented, at least in part, in hardware and configured to:
allocate a set of radio resources for use by an open access base station in the radio communication network, the open access base station in radio communication with one or more user equipments, the set of radio resources allocated for use by the open access base station comprising a sub-set of radio resources allocated for signaling between the open access base station and the one or more user equipments; and allocate a respective set of radio resources for use by each restricted access base station of one or more restricted access base stations in the radio communication network, each restricted access base station of one or more restricted access base stations in radio communication with its respective predetermined set of user equipments, each respective set of radio resources including at least one radio resource allocated for use by the open access base station, but not including radio resources of the subset of radio resources allocated for signaling between the open access base station and the one or more user equipments, wherein: the respective sets of radio resources allocated for each restricted access base station of one or more restricted access base stations comprises respective radio resources allocated for use by each respective restricted access base station for signaling between the respective restricted access base station and its respective predetermined set of user equipments; at least some radio resources are allocated to more than one of the respective sets of radio resources allocated for use by respective restricted access base stations of one or more restricted access base stations; none of the radio resources allocated to more than one of the respective sets of radio resources allocated for use by respective restricted access base stations are radio resources allocated for use by restricted access base stations for signaling; and the sets of radio resources comprise at least one of:
sets of frequencies; orsets of radio resources in a time-frequency space.