Patent ID: 8879576

Claim:
A method for operating a mobile terminal comprising: receiving by the mobile terminal an operation mode indication from a network, wherein the operation mode indication comprises an indication of a primary transmission mode period of operation during which the mobile terminal operates without need for interference coordination, by the network with other users operating under the network, on an unlicensed frequency band, a secondary transmission mode period of operation during which the mobile terminal operates on predefined resources on the unlicensed frequency band, and an idle transmission mode period of operation during which the mobile terminal is not allowed to conduct any transmissions on the unlicensed frequency band; causing an interfered ratio report to be transmitted to the network, wherein the interfered ratio report is calculated as a total number of interfered symbols over a sensing period; determining whether to operate the mobile terminal as a primary user or a secondary user based on the interfered ratio report, wherein the primary user is configured to operate during the primary transmission mode period of operation and/or during the secondary transmission mode period of operation, and the secondary user is configured to operate during the secondary transmission mode period of operation only; and determining whether to operate the mobile terminal during the primary transmission mode period of operation, the secondary transmission mode period of operation, or the idle transmission mode period of operation.