Method for UE Pattern Indication and Measurement for Interference Coordination

Abstract

A method of inter-cell interference coordination is provided for UE measurements and network access procedure. In a first embodiment, a UE in idle mode performs measurements on received radio signals applying a simplified radio resource restriction for interference coordination. The UE determines the restricted radio resource without receiving explicit measurement configuration. In a second embodiment, during various phases of a network access procedure, the UE indicates its interference status and/or additional interference information to its serving base station to enhance interference coordination. In a third embodiment, the UE in connected mode performs measurements on both interference-protected transmission resources and non-interference-protected transmission resources. The UE measurement results are used for scheduling, radio link monitoring, and/or mobility management to increase radio spectrum efficiency and to improve user experience.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 (a) connecting to a base station by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system;   (b) performing measurements by the UE, wherein the measurement is performed on interference-protected resources;   (c) performing measurements by the UE, wherein the measurement is performed on non-interference-protected resources; and   (d) transmitting measurement results of the measurements performed in (b) and (c) to the base station for radio resource management.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE performs measurements of channel state information (CSI) or channel quality indicator (CQI) for dynamic radio resource scheduling. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE performs measurements of radio link monitoring (RLM), and wherein the UE performs the RLM measurements only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE performs measurements of received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell for mobility management, and wherein the serving cell measurement is performed only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE performs measurements of received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) of a neighbor cell for mobility management, and wherein the neighbor cell measurement is performed only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the interference-protected resources correspond to silenced subframes applied in macrocells for Macro-Pico scenario or applied in femtocells for Macro-Femto scenario. 
     
     
         7 . A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 (a) connecting to a base station by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system;   (b) performing measurements by the UE, wherein the measurement is performed on interference-protected resources;   (c) performing measurements by the UE, wherein the measurement is performed on non-interference-protected resources; and   (d) transmitting measurement results of the measurements performed in (b) and (c) to the base station for radio resource management.   
     
     
         8 . The UE of  claim 7 , wherein the UE performs measurements of channel state information (CSI) or channel quality indicator (CQI) for dynamic radio resource scheduling. 
     
     
         9 . The UE of  claim 7 , wherein the UE performs measurements of radio link monitoring (RLM), and wherein the UE performs the RLM measurement only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         10 . The UE of  claim 7 , wherein the UE performs measurements of received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell for mobility management, and wherein the serving cell measurement is performed only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         11 . The UE of  claim 7 , wherein the UE performs measurements of received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) of a neighbor cell for mobility management, and wherein the neighbor cell measurement is performed only on the interference-protected resources. 
     
     
         12 . The UE of  claim 7 , wherein the interference-protected resources correspond to silenced subframes applied in macrocells for Macro-Pico scenario or applied in femtocells for Macro-Femto scenario. 
     
     
         13 . A method, comprising:
 (a) connecting to a user equipment (UE) by a base station in a wireless communication system;   (b) receiving a first measurement result from the UE, wherein the first measurement result is associates with measurements performed on interference-protected resources;   (c) receiving a second measurement result from the UE, wherein the second measurement result is associated with measurements performed on non-interference-protected resources; and   (d) performing radio resource management for the UE based on the measurement results of the measurements performed in (b) and (c).   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the radio resource management in (d) involves dynamic resource scheduling based on channel state information (CSI) or channel quality indicator (CQI) measurements. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the radio resource management in (d) involves mobility management based on received signal reference power (RSRP) or received signal reference quality (RSRQ) measurements. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein base station schedules the UE only on interference-protected resources if a first serving cell RSRP/RSRQ measurement result from (b) is substantially higher than a second serving cell RSRP/RSRQ measurement result from (c). 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the base station handovers the UE to another frequency band if both serving cell RSRP/RSRQ measurement results from (b) and (c) are below a threshold. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the interference-protected resources correspond to silenced subframes applied in macrocells for Macro-Pico scenario or applied in femtocells for Macro-Femto scenario.