CONTROLLING A WIRELESS FEEDER NETWORK USING A CO-ORDINATED SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL SCHEDULE OF REMOTE BASE STATIONS

摘要

An apparatus and method are provided for controlling a wireless feeder network which connects access base stations 50 75 to a communications network 15. The wireless feeder network comprises a plurality of feeder base stations 35 connected to the communications network 15 and a plurality of feeder terminals 45 70 (also known as remote base stations or peripheral base stations) connected to the plurality of access base stations. A sounding schedule is determined for the wireless feeder network in dependence on a visibility matrix, the visibility matrix indicative of visibility via the wireless feeder network between each of the plurality of feeder base stations and each of the plurality of feeder terminals. Then a sounding procedure within the wireless feeder network is controlled in accordance with the sounding schedule. The visibility matrix enables a coordinated sounding procedure to be carried out, allowing more accurate channel metrics for the wireless channels of the network to be determined which are not adversely affected by interference between elements of the network.