Patent ID: 9450738
Filing Date: 2016-09-20
CPC Classification: H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method to optimize almost blank subframe usage in a wireless network, wherein at least one serving base station provides wireless connectivity to at least one user terminal, said at least one user terminal suffering interference from at least one interfering base station, said method comprising: (a) generating, by said at least one interfering base station, in order to minimize said interference, an almost blank subframe pattern that said at least one interfering base station knows will not be needed, and sending said almost blank subframe pattern to said at least one serving base station, (b) generating, by said at least one serving base station, a set of preferred almost blank subframes, from said received almost blank subframe pattern, that said at least one serving base station determines have a high probability of being of use for providing said wireless connectivity based on requested traffic demand from said user terminal and prior to receiving any report of interference from said user terminal, and sending said set of preferred almost blank subframes ordered by a priority of usage to said at least one interfering base station; and (c) using, by said at least one interfering base station, in case of requiring use of additional subframes for serving user terminals of said at least one interfering base station, the almost blank subframes indicated as low priority in said received set of preferred almost blank subframes from said at least one serving base station.