Patent ID: 8351379

Claim:
A wireless communication system comprising: a first coordinated base station comprising: a first base station subsystem for providing wireless down link communications to and receiving wireless up link communications from one or more wireless user equipment devices, and a first over-the-air communications unit in communication with the first base station subsystem for providing wireless communication with a first macro cell base station in order to communicate with a second coordinated base station; the second coordinated base station comprising: a second base station subsystem for providing wireless down link communications to and receiving wireless up link communications from one or more wireless user equipment devices, and a second over-the-air communications unit in communication with the second base station subsystem for providing wireless communication with a second macro cell base station in order to communicate with the first coordinated base station, wherein the first coordinated base station includes a control unit which provides control information relating to interference management to the first base station subsystem and derives that control information from messages received from the second coordinated base station via the first over-the-air communications unit, wherein the first base station subsystem down link communications are transmitted as orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signals and the first base station subsystem zero outs tones in response to the control information, and wherein the first over-the-air communications unit comprises a wireless transceiver for providing the wireless communication with the first macro cell base station and a separate auxiliary receiver to measure one or more parameters of the down link signal of another base station.