Patent ID: 6405046
Filing Date: 2002-06-11
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
A method for partitioning the mobile stations occupying each of a plurality of cells of a wireless communication network between an overlay and an underlay, wherein:(i) each cell has a base station, (ii) within each cell there is a path loss between the base station and each mobile station of that cell; (iii) a plurality of communication channels is available to the network; and (iv) said channels are allocable as overlay channels or underlay channels, each possible allocation of all said channels to be referred to as a channel split; the method comprising: determining a path-loss threshold for each cell according to a procedure that seeks to drive network capacity up while satisfying a rule that relates to intercell interference; repeating the threshold-determination procedure for each of a plurality of possible channel splits, thereby to determine that channel split which yields the greatest network capacity while satisfying the rule that relates to intercell interference; within each cell, assigning each of that cell's mobile stations to the overlay if the mobile station's corresponding path loss exceeds the pertinent path-loss threshold, and to the underlay if its corresponding path loss lies below the pertinent path-loss threshold; and allocating the plurality of communication channels according to the channel split that has been determined to yield the greatest network capacity while satisfying the rule that relates to intercell interference.