Patent ID: 8620340
Filing Date: 2013-12-31
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: determining, in a base station of a distributed antenna system comprising at least two base stations, the user allocation options comprising the possible serving base stations for each user terminal within the distributed antenna system; determining quality information related to at least one of the following: the user allocation options comprising the user terminals that are possibly served by each base station, and a communication link for each user terminal that is possibly served by a base station, wherein the quality information comprises either a combined rate for each user allocation option regarding the base station or a channel gain for each communication link between the base station and the user terminals that are possibly served by the base station, wherein the combined rate corresponds to all of the communication links between the base station and the user terminals in one user allocation option; communicating to each base station of the distributed antenna system at least one user allocation option comprising information representing at least one user terminal that is possibly served by the corresponding base station and applying beamforming towards a selected, base station-specific set of user terminals on the basis of an optimal user allocation, the optimal user allocation being determined according to the available quality information.