Method and apparatus for interference reporting in a N-MIMO communication system

摘要

A method and apparatus is described. The method comprising defining an interference reporting schedule for a user equipment (110) in relation to a serving set (102) of serving cells (120), scheduling null pilot intervals based on the interference reporting schedule, conducting limited transmission upon occurrence of a scheduled null pilot interval, the limited transmission comprising one of silencing transmission upon occurrence of the scheduled null pilot interval or reducing transmit power by a power backoff value upon occurrence of the scheduled null pilot interval, receiving an interference report from the user equipment (110) subsequent to occurrence of a null pilot interval, the interference report comprising an indication of interference associated with one or more non-serving cells (130) not within the serving set (102) and scheduling a communication by one or more serving cells (120) of the serving set (102) to the user equipment (110) based at least in part on the received interference report. Also a method and apparatus for sending an interference report.