Patent ID: 7945269

Claim:
A method of allocating a plurality of carriers to a plurality of cells in a wireless cellular communications system, the method comprising: dividing, at a network operations centre, the cells into a plurality of groups each comprising a contiguous plurality of said cells, each group having one of a plurality of group types, such that groups of the same group type are separated by at least a predetermined minimum re-use distance; dividing, at the network operations centre, the carriers into a plurality of carrier sets corresponding respectively to the plurality of group types; and allocating, at the network operations centre, the carriers from each carrier set to the corresponding group type, such that at least some of the carriers are each allocated to more than one of the groups of said plurality of groups, the groups of said more than one of the groups being of the same group type, none of said carriers is allocated to a plurality of cells mutually separated by less than said predetermined minimum re-use distance within the same group, and such that the allocation of said carriers among the cells of a first of the groups of said plurality of groups differs from the allocation of said carriers among the cells of a second of the groups of said plurality of groups, the first and the second of the groups of said plurality of groups being of the same group type.