Patent ID: 9674809
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. In a wireless communication system in which first and second adjacent base stations provide respective coverage areas in which to serve user equipment devices (UEs), wherein the base stations are time synchronized with each other for air interface communications in their respective coverage areas, each coverage area defining a continuum of subframes each divided into a sequence of time segments for communicating modulated data, wherein the second base station provides carrier aggregation service on component carriers, a method comprising: providing, by the first base station, carrier-aggregation service on the same component carriers on which the second base station provides carrier-aggregation service, the component carriers including a first component carrier and a second component carrier; differentially structuring downlink channels on the component carriers, by the first base station, including (i) on the first component carrier, providing control channel space in different ones of the time segments per subframe than time segments per subframe in which the second base station will provide control channel space on the first component carrier, but (ii) on the second component carrier, providing control channel space in the same time segments per subframe in which the second base station will provide control channel space on the second component carrier; and based on the differential structuring of the downlink channels on the component carriers, transmitting by the first base station a first type of data in traffic channel space on the first component carrier and transmitting by the first base station a second type of data in traffic channel space on the second component carrier.