Patent ID: 7142861

Claim:
A method for use in a cellular communications system that includes a macro cell encompassing a smaller micro cell, comprising: determining and establishing an uplink communication cell boundary between the macro cell and the micro cell, and determining and establishing a downlink communication cell boundary between the macro cell and the micro cell different from the uplink communication cell boundary, wherein the uplink communication cell boundary is larger than the downlink communication cell boundary, the method further comprising: determining whether an uplink interference level at the micro cell base station exceeds a threshold, and if so, performing an interference cancellation operation to compensate for the uplink interference level, wherein the determining step includes: determining whether to compensate for intra-cell uplink interference in the micro cell, and detecting one or more parameters regarding one or more mobiles on the macro cell side of the downlink communication cell boundary, and wherein the performing step includes using those one or more parameters for uplink interference cancellation in the micro cell.