SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SMALL CELL UPLINK INTERFERENCE MITIGATION

摘要

Systems and methods for facilitating the mitigation of interference in the uplink of a small cell caused by macrocell user equipment in the case where the macrocell cannot identify the interfering macrocell user equipment because the user equipment cannot detect and report the small cell's downlink due to the small cell's uplink/downlink coverage imbalance. In an embodiment, the smell cell provides the macrocell with a notification of the interference, the configuration information about its Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), and a plurality of unique preambles and transmission times for non-contention-based transmissions on the small cells PRACH. The macrocell orders each of one or a plurality of macrocell user equipment to transmit one of the unique preambles on the small cell's PRACH. The small cell reports to the macrocell the detected preamble transmissions, which allows the macrocell to identify interfering user equipment and perform corrective actions.

主权项

1. A method for identifying an interfering user device being served by a first base station of a cellular network, the method comprising, by the first base station:
receiving an interference indication message from a second base station, the interference indication message comprising an indication that the second base station is experiencing uplink interference from at least one interfering user device; for each of a plurality of user devices being served by the first base station, assigning a preamble to the user device, and transmitting the assigned preamble to the user device; receiving a list of preambles from the second base station, wherein the list of preambles comprises one or more preambles which were received at the second base station from one of the plurality of user devices; and identifying the at least one interfering user device based on the list of preambles.