Patent ID: 7738405

Claim:
A telecommunications control apparatus for use in a particular node of telecommunications system that includes a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes including the particular node, said apparatus comprising: a control signal receiver to receive a control signal from another node; a reception power decider configured to determine a reception power value of the control signal received from the another node; a control signal decider configured to decide, in accordance with the reception power value of the control signal determined by said reception power decider, whether or not the particular node should communicate with the another node in relation to interference at said particular node; and a communication controller configured to control communication between the particular node and the another node in accordance with a result of a decision made by said control signal decider, wherein said control signal decider comprises: a node sorter configured to determine a distance between the particular node and the another node from the reception power value of the control signal in accordance with a preselected rule, and determine, in accordance with the distance determined, whether or not the another node is a node communicable with the particular node; and a control signal identifier configured to reference a result of sorting executed by said node sorter to determine whether or not the control signal received this time is representative of the another node communicable with the particular node.