Patent ID: 8767580

Claim:
A method for managing resources in at least one femtocell, the method comprising: transmitting at least one frame including a first zone of resources on which a set of base stations including at least one femtocell base station and base stations that are adjacent to said at least one femtocell base station implement transmission of signals to impose interference and including a second zone dedicated for measuring throughput of mobile stations served by the at least one femtocell base station without interference; categorizing the mobile stations served by the at least one femtocell base station in interference classes by determining throughputs of said mobile stations served by the at least one femtocell base station with interference based on the transmission of signals on the first zone; configuring resources of at least one additional frame based on the categorizing; and transmitting the at least one additional frame in a cell of said at least one femtocell base station in accordance with said configuring, wherein the at least one frame further comprises a third zone dedicated for data transmissions by any base station in the set and a fourth zone including a subset of resources that are dedicated for only the at least one femtocell base station among the base stations of said set, wherein the interference classes include a first class of mobile stations for which said third zone is utilized and a second class of mobile stations for which said fourth zone is utilized, wherein the categorizing further comprises categorizing a first mobile station of the mobile stations as the first class of mobile stations if T free <(1+α)*T occ , where T free is a determined throughput of the first mobile station in the second zone, T occ is a determined throughput of the first mobile station in the first zone and α is a pre-determined threshold, and wherein a zone comprises a portion of the at least one frame in which one or more bursts can be scheduled, and the first, second, third, and fourth zones comprise occupied, free, reuse, insolation zones, respectively.