Methods of obtaining measurements in the presence of strong and/or highly varying interference

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9398480-B2
Application number	US-201314068817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2013
Priority date	Nov 2, 2012
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for obtaining effective measurements in a cellular communications network are disclosed. In one embodiment, a node (i.e., a measuring node) in a cellular communications network performs a reference measurement at the node, where the reference measurement contains one or more interference components. The node then mitigates at least one of the interference components contained in the reference measurement to thereby provide an effective measurement. In one embodiment, the effective measurement is used by the measuring node, reported to another node, or both used by the measuring node and reported to another node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operation of a node in a cellular communications network, comprising:
performing a reference measurement at the node, the node being equipped with an enhanced receiver that mitigates interference such that one or more interference components contained in the reference measurement performed by the node are one or more residual interference components, the reference measurement being on a first cell and containing one or more interference components, wherein performing the reference measurement comprises performing a plurality of sub-measurements on a plurality of radio resources;
compensating the reference measurement to mitigate at least one residual interference component of the one or more residual interference components contained in the reference measurement at the node and thereby provide an effective measurement, wherein both the one or more residual interference components contained in the reference measurement and the at least one residual interference component mitigated are comprised in the one or more residual interference components received from at least one second cell, and wherein compensating the reference measurement comprises:
determining a plurality of radio resources in which the at least one residual interference component is present;
determining the plurality of radio resources used for performing the reference measurement;
determining a plurality of radio resources for the effective measurement;
determining an impact of the at least one residual interference component on the reference measurement based on an overlap between the plurality of radio resources in which the at least one residual interference component is present and the plurality of radio resources used for performing the reference measurement; and
counteracting the impact of the at least one residual interference component on the reference measurement within the plurality of radio resources for the effective measurement to thereby provide the effective measurement; and

signaling of the effective measurement to a second node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of a bandwidth of the reference measurement, a bandwidth of the effective measurement, and a bandwidth of the at least one interference component are different.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein, prior to the signaling of the effective measurement to the second node, the method further comprises:
receiving, from the second node, a request for the effective measurement.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein signaling the effective measurement comprises selectively signaling the effective measurement to the second node based on a condition.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one interference component comprises an interference generated by a radio signal transmission by a third node.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the node is a radio network node in the cellular communications network.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the node is a wireless device in the cellular communications network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein counteracting the impact of the at least one interference component on the reference measurement to mitigate the at least one residual interference component contained in the reference measurement comprises:
obtaining at least one compensation value for mitigating the at least one residual interference component contained in the reference measurement; and
applying the at least one compensation value to the reference measurement at the node to provide the effective measurement.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein:
performing the reference measurement comprises performing the reference measurement at the node on the plurality of radio resources when an interference mitigation function of the enhanced receiver is at least partially deactivated such that the one or more residual interference components contained in the reference measurement could have been but were not mitigated by the enhanced receiver; and
obtaining the at least one compensation value comprises determining the at least one compensation value based on a reference value that is indicative of an amount of residual interference that can be mitigated by the enhanced receiver of the node.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein obtaining the at least one compensation value comprises determining the at least one compensation value such that the at least one compensation value at least partially cancels the at least one residual interference component.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is at least one predefined compensation value.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is at least one of a predefined set of compensation values.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on a reference value that is indicative of an amount of residual interference that can be mitigated by the enhanced receiver of the node.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on one or more previous radio measurements performed by the node.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on at least one of a group consisting of: radio measurement statistics for a plurality of previous measurements performed by a plurality of nodes and historical data for a plurality of previous radio measurements performed by a plurality of nodes.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on a manner in which the reference radio measurement is performed.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on a bandwidth of a signal measured at the node when performing the reference measurement.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on a bandwidth for interference estimation.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on one or more interference conditions at the node.

20. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on information indicative of whether an interference handling technique was used at the node when performing the reference measurement.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein, if one or more interference handling techniques were used at the node when performing the reference measurement, the at least one compensation value is based on information that identifies the one or more interference handling techniques.

22. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one compensation value is based on a number of aggressor cells at the node.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein:
determining the impact comprises determining a set of radio resources in which the plurality of radio resources in which the at least one residual interference component is present overlap the plurality of radio resources used for performing the reference measurement; and
counteracting the impact comprises:
for each radio resource in the set of radio resources that is within the plurality of radio resources for the effective measurement, subtracting a compensation value from a corresponding one of the plurality of sub-measurements for the reference measurement to thereby provide a compensated sub-measurement; and
providing the effective measurement based on the compensated sub-measurements.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein counteracting the impact of the at least one interference comp

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M
• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Siomina Iana

Classifications

• H04W24/10 Primary

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04L1/0026

  Transmission of channel quality indication · CPC title

• H04W84/045

  using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B · CPC title

• H04W52/244

  Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI] · CPC title

• H04J11/005

  of intercell interference · CPC title