CN108207034A

CN108207034A - The method of transmission interference coordination information and base station

Info

Publication number: CN108207034A
Application number: CN201611175718.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张萌; 刘仁茂
Original assignee: Sharp Corp
Current assignee: Sharp Corp
Priority date: 2016-12-16
Filing date: 2016-12-16
Publication date: 2018-06-26
Also published as: WO2018108122A1

Abstract

A kind of method that embodiments herein proposes base station in the system that different sub-carrier type SCS is supported to coexist and its execution.The method includes：The first notification information is generated, first notification information includes multiple cells, and each cell indicates interference or power level of the base station on a unit running time-frequency resource region；The second notification information is generated, second notification information is used to indicate the SCS types corresponding to each cell in the first notification information；And send generated the first notification information and the second notification information.

Description

Method and base station for transmitting interference coordination information

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method for transmitting interference coordination information and a corresponding base station.

Background

At the third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) RAN #71 Congress, 3rd Generation Partnership Project: 3GPP, year 2016, NTT DOCOMO proposed a New research Project on the 5G technical standard (see non-patent document: RP-160671: New SID Proposal: Study on New Radio Access Technology) and was approved. The purpose of the research project is to develop a New wireless (New Radio: NR) access technology to meet all application scenarios, requirements and deployment environments of 5G. NR has mainly three application scenarios: enhanced mobile broadband Communications (eMBB), massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC). According to the project planning, the standardization of NR proceeds in two phases: the standardization work of the first stage will be completed in the middle of 2018; the second stage of standardization was completed by 2019. The standard specification of the first stage is forward compatible with the standard specification of the second stage, and the standard specification of the second stage is established on the standard specification of the first stage and meets all the requirements of the 5G NR technical standard.

Currently, in LTE and LTE-a, relatively narrow-band transmit power (Relative Narrowband TXPower: RNTP) is used to characterize the power of the base station on time-frequency resources, and the indication precision on the frequency domain is the level of Physical Resource Block (PRB) or physical resource block pair (PRB pair). RNTP can exchange information between different base stations/cells over the X2 interface. When a base station/cell obtains the RNTP of other base stations in a certain frequency band and/or time period, the self time-frequency resource scheduling strategy can be adaptively adjusted according to the RNTP, so that the interference among different base stations/cells is reduced. The RNTP-like parameters include an uplink interference load indicator (OI), a High Interference Indicator (HII), and the like. Wherein, OI represents the uplink interference load condition, and the indication precision of the OI on the frequency domain is the level of PRB or PRB pair. The HII indicates a level of uplink interference, and alternative levels include "high interference sensitivity" and "low interference sensitivity", and the indication accuracy in the frequency domain is also the level of a PRB or a PRB pair.

In future mobile communication systems, a plurality of different sub-Carrier types (SCS) may exist simultaneously on the same Component Carrier (CC) frequency band. Different SCS spans in the frequency domain are different, so that the PRB corresponding to different SCS spans in the frequency domain and the time domain are also different. In contrast, the time-frequency resources (i.e., PRBs or PRB pairs) for which conventional RNTP, OI and HII are targeted are deterministic, i.e., both the frequency-domain span (corresponding to the subcarrier span of 15kHz) and the time-domain span (duration of 1ms) are determined. Therefore, the conventional RNTP, OI and HII cannot be directly applied in such a future communication system where a plurality of different subcarrier types coexist.

Therefore, a new mechanism adapted to indicate interference in case of coexistence of different types of SCS is needed.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to a base station adapted to operate in a system in which different types of SCS coexist and a mechanism thereof for transmitting interference coordination information.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed in a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising: generating first notification information, the first notification information comprising a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the base station on a unit time-frequency resource region; generating second notification information, wherein the second notification information is used for indicating an SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information; and transmitting the generated first notification information and second notification information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed in a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising: receiving first notification information and second notification information from other base stations; and analyzing the received first notification information and second notification information to obtain the interference or power level of the other base stations in the time and frequency dimensions, wherein the first notification information comprises a plurality of cells, each cell indicates the interference or power level of the other base stations in a unit time-frequency resource region, and the second notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information.

In some embodiments, the interference or power level may be for one of: relative narrowband transmit power, uplink interference loading, and high interference.

In some embodiments, the unit time-frequency resource region may occupy a bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs in a span in the frequency domain, and may occupy 1, 2, or more slots in a span in time.

In some embodiments, the first notification information may be represented as a bit string or matrix.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of information elements in the first notification information may occupy one bit or more.

In some embodiments, the second notification message may include an indication of the start cell location and/or the end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification message.

In some embodiments, the second notification message may include an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification message and a location offset indication.

In some embodiments, the second notification message may include two sets of messages, a first set of messages indicating all SCS types coexisting in the system, and a second set of messages indicating respective locations of occurrences in the first notification message for all SCS types listed in the first set of messages.

In some embodiments, the second set of information may include an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information for each of all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

In some embodiments, the second set of information may include an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information and a location offset indication for each of all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

In some embodiments, the second set of information may comprise a set of bitmaps, where each bitmap indicates where a particular SCS type appears in the first notification information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to be configured to:

generating first notification information, the first notification information comprising a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the base station on a unit time-frequency resource region;

generating second notification information, wherein the second notification information is used for indicating an SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information; and

and transmitting the generated first notification information and second notification information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising:

a generating unit configured to: generating first notification information, the first notification information comprising a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the base station on a unit time-frequency resource region; generating second notification information, wherein the second notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information; and

a transmitting unit configured to: and transmitting the generated first notification information and second notification information.

According to some embodiments, the base station may further comprise: a receiving unit configured to: receiving third notification information and fourth notification information from other base stations; and a processing unit configured to: and analyzing the received third and fourth notification information to learn the interference or power level of the other base station in the time and frequency dimensions. Wherein the third notification information comprises a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the other base stations on a unit time-frequency resource area; the fourth notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the third notification information.

Drawings

The above and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 schematically illustrates an example of a system supporting coexistence of different types of SCS;

fig. 2 schematically illustrates another example of a system supporting coexistence of different types of SCS;

fig. 3 schematically shows a flowchart of a generation and transmission method of notification information at a source base station side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 schematically shows a flowchart of a method of receiving and parsing notification information at a target base station side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 schematically shows a block diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 schematically shows a block diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention.

In the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or similar elements.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and the detailed description. It should be noted that the present invention should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of brevity, detailed descriptions of well-known technologies not directly related to the present invention are omitted to prevent confusion of understanding of the present invention.

The following describes in detail various embodiments of the present invention, taking an LTE mobile communication system and its subsequent evolution as an example application environment. However, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, but is applicable to more other wireless communication systems, such as future 5G or later communication systems.

A future mobile communication system supporting coexistence of different types of SCS will be described with reference to fig. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 schematically shows an example of a system supporting coexistence of different types of SCS, which are multiplexed within the same Component Carrier (CC) by means of Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). The PRBs or PRB pairs corresponding to different types of SCS all include the same number of subcarriers, for example, 1 PRB or PRB pair includes 12 subcarriers. The number of symbols (symbols) contained in the slots (slots) corresponding to different types of SCS may be 7 or 14, or other integers, where the symbols refer to OFDM symbols or DFT-S-OFDM symbols.

As an example, fig. 1 shows a case where three different types of SCS of 15kHz, 30kHz, and 60kHz exist and the number of symbols contained in the slot corresponding to the different types of SCS is the same (for example, 14). However, those skilled in the art will understand that the methods discussed herein may also be applicable to other SCS type coexistence scenarios, for example, the SCS type may also be 120kHz, 240kHz, 360kHz, and/or 480kHz, etc., and the number of symbols contained in the time slot corresponding to different types of SCS may also be 7 or other numbers, etc.

As can be easily seen from fig. 1, different types of SCS have different spans in the frequency domain, and the spans of PRBs corresponding to different types of SCS in the frequency domain and the time domain are different. For example, the 15kHz SCS spans half the 30kHz SCS and one quarter the 60kHz SCS in the frequency domain. However, the 15kHz SCS corresponds to a PRB that spans in the time domain that is one times the 30kHz SCS and two times the 60kHz SCS.

Fig. 2 schematically shows another example of a system supporting coexistence of SCS of different types, wherein SCS of different types are multiplexed in the same component carrier by means of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). Similarly, the PRBs or PRB pairs corresponding to different types of SCS all include the same number of subcarriers, for example, 1 PRB or PRB pair includes 12 subcarriers. The number of symbols (symbols) contained in the slots (slots) corresponding to different types of SCS may be 7 or 14, or other integers, where the symbols refer to OFDM symbols or DFT-S-OFDM symbols.

Fig. 2 shows, as an example, a case where three different types of SCS of 15kHz, 30kHz, and 60kHz exist and the number of symbols contained in the slot corresponding to the different types of SCS is the same (for example, 14). However, those skilled in the art will understand that the methods discussed herein may also be applicable to other SCS type coexistence scenarios, for example, the SCS type may also be 120kHz, 240kHz, 360kHz, and/or 480kHz, etc., and the number of symbols contained in the time slot corresponding to different types of SCS may also be 7 or other numbers, etc.

As can be easily seen from fig. 2, different types of SCS have different spans in the frequency domain, and the spans of PRBs corresponding to different types of SCS in the frequency domain and the time domain are different. For example, the 15kHz SCS spans half the 30kHz SCS and one quarter the 60kHz SCS in the frequency domain. However, the 15kHz SCS corresponds to a PRB that spans in the time domain that is one times the 30kHz SCS and two times the 60kHz SCS.

It should be understood that fig. 1 and fig. 2 are only two examples illustrating multiplexing manners adopted by coexistence of multiple different types of SCS, and the solution of the present application can also be applied to systems that support coexistence of different types of SCS by adopting other multiplexing manners (e.g. time division multiplexing in combination with frequency division multiplexing).

In existing LTE and LTE-a, only one SCS, i.e., 15kHz SCS, is supported, and each subframe (time domain occupies 1ms) includes 2 slots (time domain occupies 0.5ms per slot), each slot containing 7 OFDM symbols. Thus, there will be 100 PRBs or PRB pairs on the existing 20M component carriers, and the distribution of these 100 PRBs or PRB pairs over the time-frequency resources will be unambiguous. The conventional RNTP is represented as a bit string (bitstring), e.g., a 100-bit string, where each bit corresponds to the transmission power level of a PRB or PRB pair. After receiving the RNTP transmitted by other base stations, one base station may know the transmission power of the other base station on a specific PRB or PRB pair, and may then adaptively adjust its time-frequency resource scheduling policy according to the RNTP.

However, as can be seen from fig. 1 and 2, unlike the case in the existing LTE and LTE-a, in a new wireless (NR) system supporting coexistence of multiple different types of SCS, the distribution of PRBs or PRB pairs over time-frequency resources is uncertain. Thus, the transmission power on each PRB or PRB pair cannot be explicitly indicated using the conventional RNTP. The conventional OI and HII, etc. also have the same problems as RNTP.

In NR systems, RNTP, OI, HII, etc. information used for interference coordination needs to indicate, in addition to the interference levels, the specific distribution of these interference levels over time-frequency resources. Otherwise, different base stations will not understand the RNTP, OI, HII, etc. of the other party.

To this end, the present application proposes a new method suitable for transmitting information for interference coordination between base stations in an NR system in which different types of SCS coexist. Examples of information for interference coordination may include the above-described Relative Narrowband Transmit Power (RNTP), uplink interference load indication (OI), High Interference Indication (HII), and the like, and may also include other information that may be used for interference coordination between base stations or between cells. To distinguish from conventional RNTP, OI, HII, etc., it is desirable to refer to the RNTP, OI, and HII applicable to the NR system proposed in the present application as NR-NRTP, NR-OI, and NR-HII.

An embodiment of a method of transmitting information for interference coordination in an NR system is illustrated below mainly by way of an example of NR-NRTP with reference to fig. 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a flowchart of a method 100 for generating and transmitting notification information at a source base station side according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the source base station refers to a base station that transmits information to other base stations.

As shown, in step s110, the base station generates first notification information indicating interference or power levels in the time and frequency domain dimensions.

The first notification message may include a plurality of information elements, each corresponding to a narrowband transmission power level or an interference level of a unit time-frequency resource region. The unit time-frequency resource region may include one or more PRBs or PRB pairs. In other words, the frequency-domain span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be a bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs or a bandwidth of other widths, and the time span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be 1, 2, or more slots.

The first notification information may indicate a power level or an interference level on a time-frequency resource region comprising several consecutive unit time-frequency resource regions. The number of cells of the first notification information may be equal to the total number of unit time-frequency resource regions included in the time-frequency resource region. Each cell indicates a narrowband transmission power level or interference level of one unit of time-frequency resource region. The number of the unit time-frequency resource region can adopt various modes. For example, the numbering may be done in the frequency domain first (low to high, or high to low) and then in the time domain, or in the frequency domain first and then in the frequency domain (low to high, or high to low).

The interference or power level indicated in the first notification information may be for a relative narrowband transmit power (i.e., NR-RNTP), or may be for an uplink interference load indication (NR-OI), or may be for a high interference indication (NR-HII), etc. At this time, the first notification information may also be referred to simply as NR-RNTP, NR-OI, NR-HII, or the like.

The generation of the first notification information will be described in detail below using NR-RNTP as an example.

In one embodiment, the NR-RNTP may be represented as a bit string (bitstring), each bit being a cell corresponding to the transmit power level of a time-frequency resource region per unit. The frequency-domain span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be a bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs or a bandwidth of other widths, and the time span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be 1ms or 1 or several slots.

As an example, the unit time-frequency resource region includes 1 PRB or PRB pair, and then NR-RNTP may be calculated as follows:

wherein,

NR_RNTP(n_PRB) Representing the nth bit in the NR-RNTP bit string_PRBA value of a bit;

representing the number of all unit time-frequency resource regions (PRB or PRB pair in this example) on the downlink member carrier;

E(n_PRB) Indicates that the nth time period in the time period occupied by the unit time-frequency resource region (PRB or PRB pair in this example)_PRBEnergy, also called maximum resource element energy (EPRE), of Resource Elements (REs) not carrying reference signals but carrying PDSCH in a unit time-frequency resource region (PRB or PRB pair in this example) having the largest energy;

wherein P is_maxIs the maximum transmit power of the base station,the number of subcarriers contained in a unit time-frequency resource region (in this example, a PRB or a PRB pair); Δ f is the subcarrier spacing, which is determined by the subcarrier type SCS of the corresponding unit time-frequency resource region (in this case, PRB or PRB pair);

NR_RNTP_threshold∈{-∞，-11，-10，-9，-8，-7，-6，-5，-4，-3，-2，-1，0，+1，+2，+3}。

the NR-RNTP bit string may indicate the transmit power level of all unit time-frequency resource regions (PRBs or PRB pairs in this example) over a number of consecutive subframes or slots. The sequence number of the unit time-frequency resource region (in this example, PRB or PRB pair) may be in various manners. For example, the sequence may be from high frequency to low frequency in sequence starting from a subframe or slot with a low sequence number, then switching to the next adjacent subframe followed by the last sequence number of the previous subframe, then sequencing from high frequency to low frequency, and so on. Alternatively, the sequence numbers of the PRBs or PRB pairs may be sequentially ordered from low frequency to high frequency according to the subframe or slot with a low sequence number, then switched to the sequence number of the next adjacent subframe, which is arranged last by the previous subframe, and then ordered from low frequency to high frequency, and so on. Here, the sequence number of the PRB or PRB pair may be counted from 0 or 1. The calculation formula of the corresponding NR-RNTP bit value for a PRB or PRB pair on a certain subframe or slot may be similar to the above example.

In one example, NR-RNTP-10111011010011, where '10111011' may represent the interference level or power level on all PRBs or PRB pairs with 15kHz SCS over 1 or multiple consecutive subframes or 1 or several consecutive slots; '0100' may represent an interference level or power level on all PRBs or PRB pairs with SCS of 30kHz over 1 or more consecutive subframes or 1 or several consecutive slots; '11' may represent an interference level or power level on a PRB or PRB pair having all SCS of 60kHz over 1 or more consecutive subframes or 1 or several consecutive slots.

In another embodiment, the NR-RNTP may be a multi-dimensional bit string (e.g., a two-dimensional bit string) or a matrix, where each bit or matrix element serves as a cell corresponding to a transmit power level of a unit time-frequency resource region on a particular beam (beam). The frequency-domain span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be a bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs or a bandwidth of other widths, and the time span of the unit time-frequency resource region may be 1ms or 1 or several slots.

As an example, NR-RNTP may be a 3 × 3 matrixThe sequence number of the unit time-frequency resource region (in this example, PRB or PRB pair) and the beam sequence number corresponding to each element in the matrix may be predefined as shown in the following table:

wherein each element in NR-RNTP can be calculated as follows

Wherein,

representing the number of all beams on the downlink member carrier;

E(n_i，n_j) Represents the energy of Resource Elements (REs) with the maximum energy, namely the maximum EPRE, in the p-th antenna port, corresponding to the j-th beam in the ith PRB or PRB pair, in the time period occupied by the unit time-frequency resource region (PRB or PRB pair in this example), wherein the Resource Elements (REs) do not carry reference signals but carry PDSCH;

whereinFor the maximum transmit power of the base station on the p-th antenna port,the number of subcarriers contained in a unit time-frequency resource region (in this example, a PRB or a PRB pair); Δ f is the subcarrier spacing determined by the subcarrier type SCS of the corresponding unit time-frequency resource region (PRB or PRB pair in this example)Determining;

in an alternative embodiment, NR _ RNTP_thresholdMultiple values may be taken, each corresponding to a different SCS type. Thus, cells of the time-frequency resource region (e.g., NR _ RNTP (n)) in calculating a particular unit_PRB) Value), the NR _ RNTP corresponding to the SCS type of the unit time-frequency resource region can be used_threshold。

It should be appreciated that although in the above example each cell in the NR-RNTP occupies one bit, in other embodiments each cell in the NR-RNTP may occupy two or more bits, thereby representing more than two power levels.

The generation of the first notification information has been described in detail above by taking NR-RNTP as an example. It should be appreciated that the first notification information may also be used to provide an uplink interference load indication (NR-OI). For example, NR-OI is used to indicate an uplink interference load condition, which may distinguish between a high interference condition, a medium interference condition, or a low interference condition. Similar to NR-RNTP, NR-OI may be a one-dimensional bit string, where each cell corresponds to an interference level per unit of time-frequency resource area; alternatively, the NR-OI may also be a multi-dimensional bit string (such as a two-dimensional bit string) or a matrix.

It should be appreciated that the first notification information may also be used to provide a high interference indication (NR-HII). The NR-HII is used to indicate interference sensitivity, which can be distinguished between high interference sensitivity and low interference sensitivity. Similar to NR-RNTP, NR-HII may be a one-dimensional bit string, where each cell corresponds to interference sensitivity over a unit time-frequency resource region; alternatively, the NR-HII may also be a multi-dimensional bit string (such as a two-dimensional bit string) or a matrix.

It should be appreciated that the first notification information may indicate other power or interference levels for interference coordination in addition to NR-RNTP, NR-OI and NR-HII. The present application is not limited in this respect.

In step s120, the base station generates second notification information indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information.

As an example, the second notification message may include an indication of the start cell location and the end cell location corresponding to all SCS types in the first notification message. The cell position in the first notification message may start counting from 0 or 1. For example, in the above embodiment where the first notification information is a bit string and each bit is a cell, the number may be from 0, so that the first bit corresponds to a position of 0, the second bit corresponds to a position of 1, and so on. The first notification information (e.g., NR-RNTP) is a 3 × 3 matrixIn an embodiment, the cell location may be the location of a line cell, represented by line number i.

For example, the first notification message is a bit string 001110101, each bit is a cell, wherein the unit time-frequency resource region corresponding to the first three bits '001' corresponds to 15kHz SCS; the fourth to sixth bits '110' correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the seventh bit to the ninth bit '101' correspond to the SCS of 60 kHz. It is assumed in this example that the bit positions are numbered from 0, i.e. the first bit corresponds to a position of 0, the second bit corresponds to a position of 1, and so on.

At this time, the second notification information may be generated as follows:

SCS 15kHz_start_position＝0

SCS 15kHz_end_position＝2

SCS30kHz_start_position＝3

SCS30kHz_end_position＝5

SCS60kHz_start_position＝6

SCS60kHz_end_position＝8

alternatively, the second notification information may contain an indication of the starting cell location and the ending cell location of all SCS types in the first notification information, and also introduce a location offset indication. Here, the indications of the start cell position and the end cell position are not expressed with respect to the position of the first cell of the first notification information, but expressed with respect to the position of the first cell of the first notification information after the shift as a reference.

For example, the first notification message is a bit string 0001110101, each bit is a cell, and the second bit to the fourth bit '001' correspond to the SCS of 15 kHz; the fifth bit to the seventh bit '110' correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the eighth bit to tenth bit '101' correspond to the SCS of 60 kHz. It is assumed in this example that the bit positions in the first notification information are numbered from 0, i.e. the position corresponding to the first bit is 0, the position corresponding to the second bit is 1, and so on.

At this time, the second notification information may be generated as follows:

position offset indication 1

SCS 15kHz_start_position＝0

SCS 15kHz_end_position＝2

SCS 30kHz_start_position＝3

SCS 30kHz_end_position＝5

SCS 60kHz_start_position＝6

SCS 60kHz_end_position＝8。

As another example, the second notification message may contain an indication of the starting cell location of all SCS types in the first notification message, but not an indication of the ending cell location; or the second notification message may contain an indication of the ending cell location of all SCS types in the first notification message, but not the indication of the starting cell location.

For example, the first notification message is a bit string 001110101, each bit is a cell, in which the first three bits '001' correspond to the SCS of 15 kHz; the fourth to sixth bits '110' correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the seventh bit to the ninth bit '101' correspond to the SCS of 60 kHz. It is assumed in this example that the bit positions are numbered from 0, i.e. the first bit corresponds to a position of 0, the second bit corresponds to a position of 1, and so on.

At this time, the second notification information may be generated as follows:

SCS 15kHz_start_position＝0

SCS30kHz_start_position＝3

SCS60kHz_start_position＝6

alternatively, the second notification information may be generated as follows:

SCS 15kHz_end_position＝2

SCS 30kHz_end_position＝5

SCS 60kHz_end_position＝8

similar to the previous embodiment, alternatively, the second notification information may contain an indication of the start cell location or the end cell location of all SCS types in the first notification information, and also introduce a location offset indication. Here, the indication of the start cell position or the end cell position is not expressed with respect to the position of the first cell of the first notification information, but is expressed with respect to the position of the first cell of the first notification information after the shift.

For example, the first notification information is a bit string 0001110101, and the second bit through the fourth bit '001' correspond to SCS of 15 kHz; the fifth bit to the seventh bit '110' correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the eighth bit to tenth bit '101' correspond to the SCS of 60 kHz. It is assumed in this example that the bit positions are numbered from 0, i.e. the first bit corresponds to a position of 0, the second bit corresponds to a position of 1, and so on.

At this time, the second notification information may be generated as follows:

position offset indication 1

SCS 15kHz_start_position＝0

SCS 30kHz_start_position＝3

SCS 60kHz_start_position＝6

Or the second notification information may be generated as follows:

position offset indication 1

SCS 15kHz_end_position＝2

SCS 30kHz_end_position＝5

SCS 60kHz_end_position＝8。

In the above embodiments, it is assumed that the coexisting SCS types that the base station can support are determined and known in advance by other base stations.

In the following, consider the case where the coexisting SCS types that the base station can support are uncertain, in which case the second notification information may preferably comprise two sets of information. The first set of information is used to indicate the types of all SCS coexisting in the system, e.g., all SCS types present may be listed in a certain order. The second set of information is used to indicate the respective corresponding positions of the SCS types listed in the first set of information in the first notification information, and the indication sequence of the SCS types in the first set of information is consistent with the indication sequence of the SCS types in the first set of information. The second set of information may be represented in various ways, similar to the above-described case assuming that the coexisting SCS type that the base station can support is deterministic. For example, the second set of information may contain an indication of the respective start cell location and end cell location for all SCS types in the first notification information. Alternatively, the second set of information may also contain an indication of only the start cell location or only the end cell location of all SCS types in the first notification information. Alternatively, in both schemes, a position offset indication may also be introduced, so that the indication of the starting cell position and/or the ending cell position of the SCS type contained in the second set of information will not be represented relative to the position of the first cell of the first notification information, but rather represented by a relative position with reference to the position of the first cell of the first notification information after offset.

The following is illustrated by a specific example.

Thus, the first set of information in the second notification information may be generated as 000110, where 00 denotes SCS at 15kHz, 01 denotes SCS at 30kHz, and 10 denotes SCS at 60 kHz.

Alternatively, a second set of information in the second notification information may be generated as 134679 (or a binary positional representation thereof). Wherein, 1 represents the start bit position of the 15kHz SCS in the first notification information, 3 represents the end bit position of the 15kHz SCS in the first notification information, 4 represents the start bit position of the 30kHz SCS in the first notification information, 6 represents the end bit position of the 30kHz SCS in the first notification information, 7 represents the start bit position of the 60kHz SCS in the first notification information, and 9 represents the end bit position of the 60kHz SCS in the first notification information.

Alternatively, the second set of information in the second notification information may be generated to be 147 (or a binary position representation). Wherein, 1 represents the starting position of 15kHz SCS in the first notification message, 4 represents the starting position of 30kHz SCS in the first notification message, and 7 represents the starting position of 60kHz SCS in the first notification message.

Alternatively, the second set of information in the second notification information may be generated 369 (or a binary representation of the position). Wherein 3 represents the ending position of 15kHz SCS in the first notification message, 6 represents the ending position of 30kHz SCS in the first notification message, and 9 represents the ending position of 60kHz SCS in the first notification message.

Alternatively, the second set of information in the second notification information may be generated to be 1023568 (or a binary position representation). Wherein 1 represents a position offset of 1 bit, the sum of 0 and a position offset indication 1 represents the starting position of the 15kHz SCS in the first notification information, the sum of 2 and a position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the 15kHz SCS in the first notification information, the sum of 3 and a position offset indication 1 represents the starting position of the 30kHz SCS in the first notification information, the sum of 5 and a position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the 30kHz SCS in the first notification information, the sum of 6 and a position offset indication 1 represents the starting position of the 60kHz SCS in the first notification information, and the sum of 8 and a position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the 60kHz SCS in the first notification information.

Alternatively, the second set of information in the second notification information may be generated as 1036 (or binary position representation). Where 1 indicates a position offset of 1 bit, the sum of 0 and the position offset indication represents the starting position of the 15kHz SCS in the first notification information, the sum of 3 and the position offset indication represents the starting position of the 30kHz SCS in the first notification information, and the sum of 6 and the position offset indication represents the starting position of the 60kHz SCS in the first notification information.

Alternatively, the second set of information in the second notification information may be generated as 1258 (or be a binary position representation). Where 1 indicates the position offset of 1 bit, the sum of 2 and the position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the SCS of 15kHz in the first notification message, the sum of 5 and the position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the SCS of 30kHz in the first notification message, and the sum of 8 and the position offset indication 1 represents the ending position of the SCS of 60kHz in the first notification message.

As another embodiment, the second set of information in the second notification information may also be a set of bitmaps. Wherein each bitmap may indicate the occurrence of a particular SCS type in the first notification message. The order of each bitmap in the bitmap group is consistent with the order indicated by the SCS type in the first group of information.

For example, consider the following example. The first notification message is a bit string 001110101, in which the first three bits '001' correspond to 15kHz SCS; the fourth to sixth bits '110' correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the seventh bit to the ninth bit '101' correspond to the SCS of 60 kHz.

Thus, the first set of information in the second notification information may be 000110, where 00 denotes SCS at 15kHz, 01 denotes SCS at 30kHz, and 10 denotes SCS at 60 kHz.

Accordingly, the second group information in the second notification information may be '111000000', '000111000', '000000111'. Wherein, the first bit string '111000000' indicates that the first three bits in the first notification information correspond to the SCS of 15 kHz; the second bit string '000111000' indicates that the fourth bit through the sixth bit in the first notification information correspond to the SCS of 30 kHz; the first bit string '000000111' indicates that the last three bits in the first notification information correspond to the SCS at 60 kHz.

In step s130, the base station (source base station) transmits the first notification information and the second notification information generated in steps s110 and s120 to other base stations. For example, the source base station may transmit the first notification information and the second notification information to the target base station through an X2 interface.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a flow chart of a method 200 of receiving and parsing notification information at a target base station side according to an embodiment of the invention.

In step s210, the base station (target base station) receives notification information from another base station (source base station), the notification information including first notification information and second notification information. The detailed description of the first notification information and the second notification has been provided above with reference to the method 300 and will not be repeated here.

In step s220, the base station parses the received first notification information and second notification information to obtain the interference or power level of the source base station in the time and frequency domain dimensions. Therefore, the base station can use the acquired information to assist in determining its own scheduling policy, including allocation of time-frequency resources, power control, time selection of signal transmission, and the like, so as to implement interference coordination between the base stations.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of a base station 500 according to an embodiment of the invention. The base station 500 includes a processor 506 (e.g., a microprocessor (μ P), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), etc.). Processor 506 may be a single processing unit or multiple processing units for performing different acts of the processes described herein (e.g., methods 300 and/or 400). The base station 500 may also include an input unit 502 for receiving signals from other entities, and an output unit 504 for providing signals to other entities. The input unit 502 and the output unit 504 may be arranged as a single entity or as separate entities.

Further, the base station 500 may comprise at least one readable storage medium 508 in the form of non-volatile or volatile memory, such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, and/or a hard disk drive. The readable storage medium 508 comprises a computer program 510, the computer program 510 comprising code/computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor 506 in the base station 500, cause the base station 500 and/or the device 100 comprising the base station 500 to perform a procedure such as that described above in connection with fig. 3-4 and any variations thereof.

The computer program 510 may be configured as computer program code having, for example, an architecture of computer program modules 510A-510C, the computer program modules 510A-510C being operable to perform substantially the corresponding steps of the flow charts illustrated in FIGS. 3-4.

Although the code means in the embodiments disclosed above in connection with fig. 5 are implemented as computer program modules which, when executed in the processor 506, cause the base station 500 to perform the actions described above in connection with fig. 3-4, at least one of the code means may, in alternative embodiments, be implemented at least partly as hardware circuits.

The base station 500 may be configured to perform the methods 300 and/or 400 described above. For the specific operation of the base station 500, reference may be made to the description above regarding the methods 300 and/or 400, which are not repeated herein.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of a base station 600 according to another embodiment of the invention. As shown, the base station 600 includes a generating unit 610 and a transmitting unit 620. Optionally, the base station 600 may further include a receiving unit 630 and a processing unit 640.

The generating unit 610 may be configured to: generating first notification information, the first notification information comprising a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the base station on a unit time-frequency resource region; and generating second notification information, wherein the second notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information.

The sending unit 620 may be configured to: and transmitting the generated first notification information and second notification information.

The receiving unit 630 may be configured to: and receiving third notification information and fourth notification information from other base stations.

The processing unit 640 may be configured to: analyzing the received third and fourth notification information to obtain interference or power levels of the other base stations in time and frequency dimensions, wherein the third notification information comprises a plurality of information elements, and each information element indicates the interference or power level of the other base stations in a unit time-frequency resource region; the fourth notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the third notification information.

It should be understood that the third notification information and the fourth notification information described above are similar to the first notification information and the second notification information, respectively, except that the base station (i.e., the source base station) that generated and transmitted them is different.

The base station 600 may be configured to perform the methods 300 and/or 400 described above. For the specific operation of the base station 600, reference may be made to the description above regarding the methods 300 and/or 400, which are not repeated herein.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that only the components relevant to the present invention are shown in the base station in fig. 5 and 6 to avoid obscuring the present invention. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, although not shown in fig. 5 and 6, a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention may also include other basic units constituting the base station.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments of a method and base station for transmitting interference coordination information in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS using schematics, flowcharts, and/or examples. Where such diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function and/or operation within such diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of structures, hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment, portions of the subject matter described in embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in integrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein applies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of signal bearing media include, but are not limited to: recordable type media such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, Compact Disks (CDs), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), digital tape, computer memory, etc.; and a transmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.)

Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention should not be limited by the above-described embodiments, but should be defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method performed in a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types, SCS, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference or power level is for one of: relative narrowband transmit power, uplink interference loading, and high interference.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unit time-frequency resource region spans the bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs in the frequency domain and spans 1, 2, or more slots in time.

4. The method of claim 1, the first notification information being represented as a bit string or a matrix.

5. The method of claim 1, each of the plurality of information elements in the first notification information occupies one bit or more bits.

6. The method of claim 1, the second notification information comprises an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second notification information comprises an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification information and a location offset indication.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second notification information comprises two sets of information, the first set of information indicates all SCS types coexisting in the system, and the second set of information indicates respective locations of occurrences in the first notification information for all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

9. The method of claim 8, the second set of information includes an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information for each of all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

10. The method of claim 1, the second set of information comprising an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information and a location offset indication for all SCS types listed in the first set of information that each correspond to.

11. The method of claim 1, the second set of information comprises a set of bitmaps, wherein each bitmap indicates the presence of a particular SCS type in the first notification information.

12. A method performed in a base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types, SCS, comprising:

receiving first notification information and second notification information from other base stations; and

parsing the received first and second notification information to learn interference or power levels of the other base stations in the time and frequency dimensions,

the first notification information includes a plurality of cells, each cell indicates interference or power level of the other base stations on a unit time-frequency resource region, and the second notification information is used for indicating an SCS type corresponding to each cell in the first notification information.

13. A base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to be configured to:

14. The base station of claim 13, wherein the interference or power level is for one of: relative narrowband transmit power, uplink interference loading, and high interference.

15. The base station of claim 13, wherein the unit time-frequency resource region spans the bandwidth of one or more PRBs or PRB pairs in the frequency domain and 1, 2, or more slots in time.

16. The base station of claim 13, wherein the first notification information is represented as a bit string or a matrix.

17. The base station of claim 13, each of the plurality of information elements in the first notification information occupies one bit or more bits.

18. The base station according to claim 13, wherein the second notification information comprises an indication of the start cell location and/or the end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification information.

19. The base station according to claim 13, wherein the second notification information comprises an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location corresponding to each of all SCS types in the first notification information and a location offset indication.

20. The base station of claim 13, wherein the second notification message comprises two sets of messages, the first set of messages indicates all SCS types coexisting in the system, and the second set of messages indicates respective locations of occurrences in the first notification message for all SCS types listed in the first set of messages.

21. The base station of claim 20, the second set of information comprising an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information for each of all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

22. The base station according to claim 13, wherein the second set of information comprises an indication of a start cell location and/or an end cell location in the first notification information and a location offset indication for all SCS types listed in the first set of information.

23. The base station of claim 13, the second set of information comprises a set of bitmaps, wherein each bitmap indicates the presence of a particular SCS type in the first notification information.

24. The base station of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receiving third and fourth notification information from other base stations,

parsing the received third and fourth knowledge information to learn interference or power levels of the other base stations in the time and frequency dimensions,

wherein the third notification information comprises a plurality of information elements, each information element indicating an interference or power level of the other base stations on a unit time-frequency resource area; the fourth notification information is used for indicating the SCS type corresponding to each cell in the third notification information.

25. A base station in a system supporting coexistence of different subcarrier types SCS, comprising:

26. The base station of claim 25, further comprising:

a receiving unit configured to: receiving third and fourth notification information from other base stations,

a processing unit configured to: parsing the received third and fourth knowledge information to learn interference or power levels of the other base stations in the time and frequency dimensions,