Patent ID: 8923876

Claim:
An uplink coordinated multipoint, UL-CoMP, method, comprising: receiving, at a cooperating base station, a UL-CoMP request from a serving base station, the UL-CoMP request requesting assistance from the cooperating base station, the UL-CoMP request specifying a first CoMP payload type; responsive to receiving the UL-CoMP request, determining a second type of CoMP payload type to provide to the serving base station based at least in part on a level of congestion on a backhaul link, the first CoMP payload type being one of: a time domain IQ, TD-IQ, samples payload; a frequency domain IQ, FD-IQ, samples payload; a log-likelihood ratio, LLR, payload; and a transport block, TB, payload; the determining including: determining that the second CoMP payload type is the TD-IQ payload type when the level of congestion is less than a first threshold; determining that the second CoMP payload type is the FD-IQ payload type when the level of congestion is less than a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold; determining that the second CoMP payload type is the LLR payload type when the level of congestion is less than a third threshold that is greater than the second threshold; and determining that the second CoMP payload type is the TB payload type when the level of congestion is greater than the third threshold; and providing a CoMP payload of the determined second CoMP payload type to the serving base station.