Patent ID: 8032142

Claim:
A method of controlling a basestation in a cellular wireless communications network, the method comprising: determining whether or not a carrier that has been selected for communicating with UEs is unused by neighbouring macrolaver basestations or other basestations; wherein a carrier is unused if there are no detected macrolayer basestation or other basestation CPICH signals and the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) on the carrier is below a minimum interference threshold; if the carrier is not unused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations or other basestations, determining whether an interference caused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations is greater than or less than an interference caused by neighbouring other basestations; if said carrier is unused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations or other basestations, setting the total transmit power of the basestation at a first power level; if said carrier is not unused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations or other basestations, and the interference caused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations is greater than the interference caused by neighbouring other basestations, setting the total transmit power of the basestation at a second power level; and if said carrier is not unused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations or other basestations, and the interference caused by neighbouring macrolayer basestations is less than the interference caused by neighbouring other basestations, setting the total transmit power of the basestation at a third power level.