Patent ID: 8583135

Claim:
A method performed by a first base station for reducing interference in a communication system comprising the first base station and a second base station located within or near a cell serviced by the first base station, wherein the first base station is allocated a frequency spectrum and the second base station is allocated a frequency spectrum that at least partially overlaps with the frequency spectrum allocated to the first base station, wherein the first base station is allocated a first time slot and the second base station is allocated a second time slot, the method performed by the first base station comprising: (a) determining a performance metric; (b) comparing the determined performance metric to a predetermined threshold; and (c) determining, at the first base station, whether to assign to a user terminal a resource block that is (i) within the frequency spectrum allocated to the second base station that at least partially overlaps with the frequency spectrum allocated to the first base station, or (ii) within the second time slot allocated to the second base station, wherein the determining is based, at least in part, on a result of the comparing of the performance metric with the predetermined threshold.