Patent ID: 8711786

Claim:
A method for choosing downlink codes for femto nodes in a wireless communication environment, comprising: receiving downlink transmissions from at least one of one or more neighboring femto nodes and one or more macrocell base stations; evaluating the downlink transmissions to recognize a first set of detected downlink codes that each have a pilot energy above a detection threshold; determining a second set of downlink codes reserved for the femto nodes; and selecting an optimal downlink code from the second set of downlink codes for a femto node to use in connection with serving user equipment responsive to a correlation between the first set of detected downlink codes and the second set of downlink codes, wherein selecting the optimal downlink code comprises selecting a downlink code with a smallest amount of detected energy when the correlation indicates that all the downlink codes of the second set of downlink codes are included in the first set of detected downlink codes.