Patent ID: 8036098

Claim:
A central scheduler for a distributed network is configured to schedule communications between transmitters and receivers of a plurality of transmitter-receiver pairs of the distributed network, wherein each transmitter-receiver pair includes a transmitter and an associated receiver, wherein the central scheduler is configured to: select a cluster of the transmitter-receiver pairs having greatest of a minimum singular value above a threshold of direct channel information of a direct channel between a transmitter and receiver of each of the pairs; and instruct the transmitter-receiver pairs of the selected cluster to perform an interference alignment technique for direct communications therebetween, the interference alignment technique using channel state information, wherein in response to being instructed by the central scheduler, each transmitter of the selected cluster is configured to precode baseband signals in accordance with the interference alignment technique for transmission to an associated receiver of the selected cluster using the channel state information, and wherein each transmitter of the selected cluster is configured to concurrently transmit the precoded signals to an associated receiver using non-orthogonal subcarriers.