Patent ID: 7876841

Claim:
A method for scheduling of user terminals to subcarriers in a multi-cell or multi-sector network using FDM transmission with interference coordination and with the frequency band used for FDM transmission being subdivided into at least two frequency subsets, wherein Using a processor, either for at least one user terminal, the cell or sector being the source for the strongest interference for said at least one user terminal is determined, and based on the received power levels from serving and interfering cells or sectors measured by said at least one user terminal, a potential for signal to interference ratio improvement for said at least one user terminal is determined if said at least one user terminal is scheduled to a frequency subset that is restricted in power in said cell or sector being the source for the strongest interference for said at least one user terminal, or based on measurements where strongest interference is caused by a transmission of said at least one user terminal, or alternatively based on power levels from serving and interfering cells received by said at least one user terminal, the frequency subset is determined that is dedicated to bear interference in the cell or sector that is receiving the strongest interference from said at least one user terminal and is thus the preferred frequency subset, if there is a potential for signal to interference ratio improvement, said at least one user terminal is allocated to a group that is assigned to said frequency subset that is restricted in power and that provides for said improvement, or said at least one user terminal is allocated to a group that is assigned to said preferred frequency subset, subcarriers of a dedicated frequency subset are allocated in equal clusters to user terminals that are allocated to the group that is assigned to the dedicated frequency subset, when not enough subcarriers are left for allocation in said dedicated frequency subset, extended frequency bandwidth outside of said dedicated frequency subset is allocated in an amount offering the same data throughput as one of said equal clusters to the user terminals that are allocated to the group that is assigned to the dedicated frequency subset, and extended frequency bandwidth that is not yet allocated out of other frequency subsets is allocated in an amount offering the same data throughput as one of said equal clusters to user terminals that do not belong to one of said groups.