Patent ID: 7773947

Claim:
A method for terminal-assisted interference control in a mobile communication system which uses multiple sub-carriers, the mobile communication system comprising a network with a plurality of base stations controlled by a radio network controller, and at least one of the plurality of base stations having means for communication with at least one of a plurality of user terminals located inside a cell service area served by a serving base station selected from the plurality of base stations, said at least one user terminal capable of receiving at least two pilot channels in parallel, and wherein time-frequency groups are used for data communication purposes between the at least one user terminal and the at least one base station, said method comprising: measuring, by the at least one user terminal, a pilot signal from the serving base station and a pilot signal from at least one neighbor base station, which neighbors an area in which the user terminal is located, the area being anywhere inside the cell service area served by the serving base station; sending, by the at least one user terminal, information about a strength of reception from said serving base station and said at least one neighbor base station to the radio network controller; scheduling, by the radio network controller, the time-frequency groups available for the plurality of base stations controlled by the radio network controller and the at least one user terminals involved in a scheduling procedure, in each time interval based on the information sent by the at least one user terminals about the strength of reception from at least one neighbor base station and the serving base station, an actual packet availability of data packets which shall be sent to the at least one user terminal involved in the scheduling procedure in each time interval, and a power budget available for each of the plurality of base stations; and wherein the scheduling procedure comprises: selecting a modulation and coding scheme for a communication channel between the network and the at least one user terminal, allocating power to the time-frequency groups, and coordinating the useful signals sent from the serving base station and interference caused by signals sent by the at least one neighbor base stations simultaneously or coordinating the useful signal sent from the serving base station and the same useful signals sent -from two or more neighbor base stations simultaneously.