Multi-carrier communications with adaptive cluster configuration and switching

CA 02884656 2015-03-10

MULTI-CARRIER COMMUNICATIONS WITH ADAPTIVE CLUSTER CONFIGURATION AND SWITCHING

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a divisional of Canadian Application No. 2,776,353 which is a divisional of Canadian Application No. 2,431,502 submitted as the Canadian National Phase Application corresponding to International Application No. PCT/US2001/048701 having an International filing date of 13 December 2001.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The invention relates to the field of wireless communications; more particularly, the invention relates to multi-cell, multi- subscriber wireless systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is an efficient modulation scheme for signal transmission over frequency-selective channels. In OFDM, a wide bandwidth is divided into multiple narrow-band subcarriers, which are arranged to be orthogonal with each other. The signals modulated on the subcarriers are transmitted in parallel. For more information, see Cimni, Jr., “Analysis and Simulation of a Digital Mobile Channel Using Orthogonal 20 Frequency Division Multiplexing,” IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. COM-33, no. 7, July 1985, pp. 665-75; Chuang and Sollenberger, “Beyond 3G: Wideband Wireless Data Access Based on OFDM and Dynamic Packet Assignment,” IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 7, pp. 78-87, July 2000.

[0004] One way to use OFDM to support multiple access for multiple subscribers 25 is through time division multiple access (TDMA), in which each subscriber uses all the subcarriers within its assigned time slots. Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is another method for multiple access, using the basic format of OFDM. In OFDMA, multiple subscribers simultaneously use different subcarriers, in a fashion similar to frequency division multiple access (FDMA). For more information, see Sari and Karam, “Orthogonal Frequency- Division Multiple Access and its Application to CATV Networks,” European

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Transactions on Telecommunications, Vol. 9 (6), pp. 507-516, Nov./Dec. 1998 and Nogueroles, Bossert, Donder, and Zyablov, Improved Performance of a Random OFDMA Mobile Communication System,, Proceedings of IEEE VTC'98, pp. 2502 -2506.

[0005] Multipath causes frequency-selective fading. The channel gains are different for different subcarriers. Furthermore, the channels are typically uncorrelated for different subscribers. The subcarriers that are in deep fade for one subscriber may provide high channel gains for another subscriber.

Therefore, it is advantageous in an OFDMA system to adaptively allocate the subcarriers to subscribers so that each subscriber enjoys a high channel gain. For more information, see Wong et al., Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Subcarrier, Bit and Power Allocation, IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., Vol. 17(10), pp. 17471758, October 1999.

[0006] Within one cell, the subscribers can be coordinated to have different subcarriers in OFDMA. The signals for different subscribers can be made orthogonal and there is little intracell interference. However, with aggressive frequency reuse plan, e.g., the same spectrum is used for multiple neighboring cells, the problem of intercell interference arises. It is clear that the intercell interference in an OFDMA system is also frequency selective and it is advantageous to adaptively allocate the subcarriers so as to mitigate the effect of intercell interference.

[0007] One approach to subcarrier allocation for OFDMA is a joint optimization operation., not only requiring the activity and channel knowledge of all the subscribers in all the cells, but also requiring frequent rescheduling every time an existing subscribers is dropped off the network or a new subscribers is added onto the network. This is often impractical in real wireless system, mainly due to the bandwidth cost for updating the subscriber information and the computation cost for the joint optimization.

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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] A method and apparatus for allocating subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises allocating at least one diversity cluster of 5 subcarriers to a first subscriber and allocating at least one coherence cluster to a second subscriber.

[0008a] Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for communication in a wireless system at a base station using one or more clusters of subcarriers, the method comprising: receiving feedback information of at least one cluster of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers used in the wireless system based on a measured channel performance being measured from a subscriber station, the measured channel performance being of at least two subcarriers of the subcarriers, the subcarriers being organized in a plurality of groups, each group of the plurality of groups having a plurality of clusters, and each cluster of the plurality of clusters having a plurality of the subcarriers, the at least one cluster being of the plurality of clusters in a group of the plurality of groups; and transmitting an allocation of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers to be used for data transmission.

[0008b] In a still further aspect, the present invention provides a base station for communication in a wireless system using one or more clusters of subcarriers, the base station comprising: a processor configured to: receive feedback information of at least one cluster of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers used in the wireless system based on a measured channel performance being measured from a subscriber station, the measured channel performance being of at least two subcarriers of the subcarriers, the subcarriers being organized in a plurality of groups, each group of the plurality of groups having a plurality of clusters, and each cluster of the plurality of clusters having a plurality of the subcarriers, the at least one cluster being of the plurality of clusters in a group of the plurality of groups; and transmit an allocation of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers to be used for data transmission.

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[0008c] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method for communication in a wireless system at a subscriber station using one or more clusters of subcarriers, the method comprising: measuring channel performance of at least two subcarriers of the subcarriers used in the wireless system, the subcarriers being organized in a plurality of groups, each group of the plurality of groups having a plurality of clusters, and each cluster of the plurality of clusters having a plurality of the subcarriers; providing feedback information of at least one cluster of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers used in the wireless system based on the measured channel performance, the at least one cluster being of the plurality of clusters in a group of the plurality of groups; and receiving an allocation of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers to be used for data transmission.

[0008d] In a still further aspect, the present invention provides a subscriber station for communication in a wireless system using one or more clusters of subcarriers, the subscriber station comprising: a processor configured to; measure channel performance of at least two subcarriers of subcarriers used in the wireless system, the subcarriers being organized in a plurality of groups, each group of the plurality of groups having a plurality of clusters, and each cluster of the plurality of clusters having a plurality of the subcarriers; provide feedback information of at least one cluster of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers used in the wireless system based on the measured channel performance, the at least one cluster being of the plurality of clusters in a group of the plurality of groups; and receive an allocation of the one or more clusters of the subcarriers to be used for data transmission.

[0008e] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of allocating clusters, each of the clusters comprising a plurality of subcarriers, by a base station which communicates with a plurality of subscriber stations using multiple access technology in a cell, the method comprising: allocating to a first subscriber station a diversity cluster to be used for a first data transmission to the first subscriber station by providing a first cluster identification, the allocated diversity cluster including a plurality of disjoint subcarriers; and allocating to a second subscriber station a coherence cluster to be used for a second data transmission to the second subscriber station by providing a second cluster identification,

-3aCA 02884656 2015-03-10 the second data transmission to occur during the same time period as the first data transmission to the first subscriber station using the allocated diversity cluster, the allocated coherence cluster including only consecutive subcarriers.

[0008f] In a still further aspect, the present invention provides a base station that communicates with a plurality of subscriber stations using multiple access technology in a cell and allocates clusters, each of the clusters comprising a plurality of subcarriers, the base station comprising: a controller configured to: allocate, to a first subscriber station, a diversity cluster to be used for a first data transmission to the first subscriber station by providing a first cluster identification, the diversity cluster allocated by the controller including a plurality of disjoint subcarriers; and allocate, to a second subscriber station, a coherence cluster to be used for a second data transmission to the second subscriber station by providing a second cluster identification, the second data transmission occurring during the same time period as the first data transmission to the first subscriber station using the allocated diversity cluster, the coherence cluster allocated by the controller including only consecutive subcarriers; and receive/transmit circuitry configured to: provide the first and the second subscriber stations with the respective first and second cluster identifications for the respective allocated diversity and coherence clusters.

[0008g] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of receiving an allocation of a cluster of a plurality of clusters, each of the plurality of the clusters comprising a plurality of subcarriers, at a first subscriber station in a wireless system from a base station which communicates with a plurality of subscriber stations, the method comprising: receiving an allocation, at the first subscriber station, of a diversity cluster to be used for a first data transmission from the base station by being provided a first cluster identification at the first subscriber station, the allocated diversity cluster including a plurality of disjoint subcarriers, the first data transmission from the base station to occur during the same time period as a second data transmission from the base station, the second data transmission from the base station occurring by a second subscriber station receiving an allocation of a coherence cluster to be used for the second data transmission from the base station by being provided a second cluster identification at the second subscriber station, the allocated coherence cluster including only consecutive subcarriers.

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[0008h] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of receiving an allocation of a cluster of a plurality of clusters, each of the plurality of the clusters comprising a plurality of subcarriers, at a first subscriber station in a wireless system from a base station which communicates with a plurality of subscriber stations, the method comprising: receiving an allocation of a first cluster at the first subscriber station by being provided a first cluster identification at the first subscriber station, the first cluster at the first subscriber station including a first plurality of subcarriers, at least one subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers being in a first time slot and at least one other subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers being in a second time slot, the second time slot being subsequent to the first time slot, the at least one subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers in the first time slot being the same as the at least one other subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers in the second time slot, the receipt of the allocation of the first cluster at the first subscriber station occurring while a second subscriber station receives an allocation of a second cluster at the second subscriber station by being provided a second cluster identification at the second subscriber station, the second cluster at the second subscriber station including a second plurality of subcarriers, a first set of subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers being in the first time slot and a second set of subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers being in the second time slot, the first set of the subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers in the first time slot being different than the second set of the subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers in the second time slot.

[0008i] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a first subscriber station in a wireless system to receive an allocation of a cluster of a plurality of clusters, each of the plurality of the clusters comprising a plurality of subcarriers, from a base station which communicates with a plurality of subscriber stations, the first subscriber station comprising: receive/transmit circuitry configured to receive an allocation of a first cluster at the first subscriber station by being provided a first cluster identification at the first subscriber station, the first cluster at the first subscriber station including a first plurality of subcarriers, at least one subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers being in a first time slot and at least one other subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers being in a second time slot, the second time slot being subsequent to the first time slot, the at least

-3cCA 02884656 2015-03-10 one subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers in the first time slot being the same as the at least one other subcarrier of the first plurality of the subcarriers in the second time slot, receipt of the allocation of the first cluster at the first subscriber station occurring while a second subscriber station receives an allocation of a second cluster at the second subscriber station by being provided a second cluster identification at the second subscriber station, the second cluster at the second subscriber station including a second plurality of subcarriers, a first set of subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers being in the first time slot and a second set of subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers being in the second time slot, the first set of the subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers in the first time slot being different than the second set of the subcarriers of the second plurality of the subcarriers in the second time slot.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed 10 description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.

[0010] Figure 1A illustrates subcarriers and clusters.

[0011] Figure IB is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process for allocating sub carriers.

[0012] Figure 2 illustrates time and frequency grid of OFDM symbols, pilots and clusters.

[0013] Figure 3 illustrates subscriber processing.

[0014] Figure 4 illustrates one example of Figure 3.

[0015] Figure 5 illustrates one embodiment of a format for arbitrary cluster feedback.

[0016] Figure 6 illustrates one embodiment of a partition the clusters into groups.

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[0017] Figure 7 illustrates one embodiment of a feedback format for group-based cluster allocation

[0018] Figure 8 illustrates frequency reuse and interference in a multi- cell, multi sector network.

[0019] Figure 9 illustrates different cluster formats for coherence clusters and 30 diversity clusters.

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[0020] Figure 10 illustrates diversity clusters with subcarrier hopping.

[0021] Figure 11 illustrates intelligent switching between diversity clusters and coherence clusters depending on subscribers mobility.

[0022] Figure 12 illustrates one embodiment of a reconfiguration of cluster classification.

[0023] Figure 13 illustrates one embodiment of a base station.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0024] A method and apparatus for allocating subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises allocating at least one diversity duster of subcarriers to a first subscriber and allocating at least one coherence duster to a second subscriber.

[0025] The techniques disdosed herein are described using OFDMA (dusters) as an example. However, they are not limited to OFDMA-based systems. The techniques apply to multi-carrier systems in general, where, for example, a carrier can be a duster in OFDMA, a spreading code in CDMA, an antenna beam in SDMA (space-division multiple access), etc. In one embodiment, subcarrier allocation is performed in each cell separately. Within each cell, the allocation for individual subscribers (e.g., mobiles) is also made progressively as each new subscriber is added to the system as opposed to joint allocation for subscribers within each cell in which allocation decisions are made taking into account all subscribers in a cell for each allocation.

[0026] For downlink channels, each subscriber first measures the channel and interference information for all the subcarriers and then selects multiple subcarriers with good performance (e.g., a high signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR)) and feeds back the information on these candidate subcarriers to the base station. The feedback may comprise channel and interference information (e.g., signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio information) on all subcarriers or just a portion of subcarriers. In case of providing information on

-4CA 02884656 2015-03-10 only a portion of the subcarriers, a subscriber may provide a list of subcarriers ordered starting with those subcarriers which the subscriber desires to use, usually because their performance is good or better than that of other subcarriers.

10027] Upon receiving the information from the subscriber, the base station further selects the subcarriers among the candidates, utilizing additional information available at the base station, e.g., the traffic load information on each subcarrier, amount of traffic requests queued at the base station for each frequency band, whether frequency bands are overused, and/or how long a subscriber has been waiting to send information. In one embodiment, the subcarrier loading information of neighboring cells can also be exchanged between base stations. The base stations can use this information in subcarrier allocation to reduce inter-cell interference.

[0028] In one embodiment, the selection by the base station of the channels to allocate, based on the feedback, results in the selection of coding/modulation rates. Such coding/modulation rates may be specified by the subscriber when specifying subcarriers that it finds favorable to use. For example, if the SINR is less than a certain threshold (e.g., 12 dB), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation is used; otherwise, 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is used. Then the base station informs the subscribers about the subcarrier allocation and the coding/modulation rates to use.

[0029] In one embodiment, the feedback information for downlink subcarrier allocation is transmitted to the base station through the uplink access channel, which occurs in a short period every transmission time slot, e.g., 400 microseconds in every 10-millisecond time slot In one embodiment, the access channel occupies the entire frequency bandwidth. Then the base station can collect the uplink SINR of each subcarrier directly from the access channel. The SINR as well as the traffic load information on the uplink subcarriers are used for uplink subcarrier allocation.

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[0030] For either direction, the base station makes the final decision of subcarrier allocation for each subscriber.

[0031] In the following description, a procedure of selective subcarrier allocation is also disclosed, including methods of channel and interference sensing, methods of information feedback from the subscribers to the base station, and algorithms used by the base station for subcarrier selections.

[0032] In Üie following description, numerous details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

[0033] Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

[0034] It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as processing or computing or calculating or determining or displaying or the like, refer to

-6CA 02884656 2015-03-10 the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

[0035] The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.

[0036] The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.

[0037] A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium indudes read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage

-7CA 02884656 2015-03-10 media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.

Subcarrier Clustering

[0038] The techniques described herein are directed to subcarrier allocation for data traffic 5 channels. In a cellular system, there are typically other channels, pre- allocated for the exchange of control information and other purposes. These channels often include down link and up link control channels, uplink access channels, and time and frequency synchronization channels.

[0039] Figure 1A illustrates multiple subcarriers, such as subcarrier 11, and cluster 12.

A cluster, such as cluster 12, is defined as a logical unit that contains at least one physical subcarrier, as shown in Figure 1 A. A cluster can contain consecutive or disjoint subcarriers. The mapping between a cluster and its subcarriers can be fixed or reconfigurable. In the latter case, the base station informs the subscribers when the clusters are redefined. In one embodiment, the frequency spectrum includes 512 subcarriers arid each cluster includes four consecutive subcarriers, thereby resulting in 128 clusters.

An Exemplary Subcarrier/Cluster Allocation Procedure

[0040] Figure IB is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process for allocation clusters to subscribers. The process is performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., dedicated logic, circuitry, etc), software (such as that which runs on, for example, a general purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both.

[0041] Referring to Figure IB, each base station periodically broadcasts pilot OFDM symbols to every subscriber within its cell (or sector) (processing block 101).

The pilot symbols, often referred to as a sounding sequence or signal, are known to both the base station and the subscribers. In one embodiment, each pilot symbol covers the entire OFDM frequency bandwidth. The pilot symbols may be different for different cells (or sectors). The pilot symbols can serve

- 8 CA 02884656 2015-03-10 multiple purposes: time and frequency synchronization, channel estimation and signal-to-interference/noise (SINR) ratio measurement for duster allocation. [0042] Next, each subscriber continuously monitors the reception of the pilot symbols and measures the SINR and/or other parameters, inducting inter-cell interference and intra-cell traffic, of each duster (processing block 102). Based on this information, each subscriber selects one or more dusters with good performance (e.g., high SINR and low traffic loading) relative to each other and feeds back the information on these candidate dusters to the base station through predefined uplink access channels (processing block 103). For example, SINR values higher than 10 dB may indicate good performance. Likewise, a duster utilization factor less than 50% may be indicative of good performance. Each subscriber selects the dusters with relatively better performance than others. The selection results in each subscriber selecting dusters they would prefer to use based on the measured parameters.

[0043] In one embodiment, each subscriber measures the SINR of each subcarrier duster and reports these SINR measurements to their base station through an access channel. The SINR value may comprise the average of the SINR values of each of the subcarriers in the duster. Alternatively, the SINR value for the duster may be the worst SINR among the SINR values of the subcarriers in the duster. In still another embodiment, a weighted averaging of SINR values of the subcarriers in the duster is used to generate an SINR value for the duster. This may be particularly useful in diversity dusters where the weighting applied to the subcarriers may be different.

[0044] The feedback of information from each subscriber to the base station contains a SINR value for each duster and also indicates the coding/modulation rate that the subscriber desires to use. No duster index is needed to indicate which SINR value in the feedback corresponds to which duster as long as the order of information in the feedback is known to the base station. In an alternative embodiment, the information in the feedback is ordered according to which dusters have the best performance relative to each other for the

-9CA 02884656 2015-03-10 subscriber. In such a case, an index is needed to indicate to which cluster the accompanying SINR.value corresponds.

[0045] Upon receiving the feedback from a subscriber, the base station further selects one or more clusters for the subscriber among the candidates (processing block 104). The base station may utilize additional information available at the base station, e.g., the traffic load information on each subcarrier, amount of traffic requests queued at the base station for each frequency band, whether frequency bands are overused, and how long a subscriber has been waiting to send information. The subcarrier loading information of neighboring cells can also be exchanged between base stations. The base stations can use this information in subcarrier allocation to reduce inter-cell interference.

[0046] After cluster selection, the base station notifies the subscriber about the cluster allocation through a downlink common control channel or through a dedicated downlink traffic channel if the connection to the subscriber has already been established (processing block 105). In one embodiment, the base station also informs the subscriber about the appropriate modulation/coding rates.

[0047] Once the basic communication link is established, each subscriber can continue to send the feedback to the base station using a dedicated traffic channel (e.g., one or more predefined uplink access channels).

[0048] In one embodiment, the base station allocates all the clusters to be used by a subscriber at once. In an alternative embodiment, the base station first allocates multiple clusters, referred to herein as the basic clusters, to establish a data link between the base station and the subscriber. The base station then subsequently allocates more clusters, referred to herein as the auxiliary clusters, to the subscriber to increase the communication bandwidth. Higher priorities can be given to the assignment of basic clusters and lower priorities may be given to that of auxiliary dusters. For example, the base station first ensures the assignment of the basic dusters to the subscribers and then tries to satisfy further requests on the auxiliary dusters from the subscribers. Alternatively, the base

-10CA 02884656 2015-03-10 station may assign auxiliary dusters to one or more subscribers before allocating basic dusters to other subscribers. For example, a base station may allocate basic and auxiliary dusters to one subscriber before allocating any dusters to other subscribers. In one embodiment, the base station allocates basic dusters to a new subscriber and then determines if there are any other subscribers requesting dusters. If not, then the base station allocates the auxiliary dusters to that new subscriber.

[0049] From time to time, processing logic performs retraining by repeating the process described above (processing block 106). The retraining may be performed periodically. This retraining compensates for subscriber movement and any changes in interference. In one embodiment, each subscriber reports to the base station its updated selection of dusters and their assodated SINRs.

Then the base station further performs the reselection and informs the subscriber about the new duster allocation. Retraining can be initiated by the base station, and in which case, the base station requests a specific subscriber to report its updated duster selection. Retraining can also be initiated by the subscriber when it observes channel deterioration.

Adaptive Modulation and Coding

[0050] In one embodiment, different modulation and coding rates are used to support reliable transmission over channels with different SINR. Signal spreading over multiple subcarriers may also be used to improve the reliability at very low SINR.

[0051] An example coding/modulation table is given below in Table 1.

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Table 1

<td> Scheme</td><td> Modulation</td><td> Code Rate</td>

<td> 0</td><td> QPSK,l/8 Spreading</td><td> ½</td>

<td> 1</td><td> QPSK/4 Spreading</td><td> Vi</td>

<td> 2</td><td> QPSK,% Spreading</td><td> Vi</td>

<td> 3</td><td> QPSK</td><td> Vi</td>

<td> 4</td><td> 8PSK</td><td> 2/3</td>

<td> 5</td><td> 16QAM</td><td> 3/4</td>

<td> 6</td><td> 64QAM</td><td> 5/6</td>

[0052] In the example above, 1/8 spreading indicates that one QPSK modulation symbol is repeated over eight subcarriers. The repetition/spreading may also be extended to the time domain. For example, one QPSK symbol can be repeated over four subcairiers of two OFDM symbols, resulting also 1/8 spreading.

[0053] The coding/modulation rate can be adaptively changed according to the channel conditions observed at the receiver after the initial cluster allocation and rate selection.

Pilot Symbols and SINR Measurement

[0054] In one embodiment, each base station transmits pilot symbols simultaneously, and each pilot symbol occupies the entire OFDM frequency bandwidth, as shown in Figures 2A-C. Referring to Figure 2A-C, pilot symbols

201 are shown aversing the entire OFDM frequency bandwidth for cells A, B and C, respectively. In one embodiment, each of the pilot symbols have a length or duration of 128 microseconds with a guard time, die combination of which is approximately 152 microseconds. After each pilot period, there are a predetermined number of data periods followed by another set of pilot symbols.

In one embodiment, there are four data periods used to transmit data after each pilot, and each of the data periods is 152 microseconds.

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[0055] A subscriber estimâtes the SINR for each cluster from the pilot symbols.

In one embodiment, the subscriber first estimates the channel response, including the amplitude and phase, as if there is no interference or noise. Once the channel is estimated, the subscriber calculates the interference/noise from the received signal.

[0056] The estimated SINR values may be ordered from largest to smallest SINRs and the clusters with large SINR values are selected. In one embodiment, the selected clusters have SINR values that are larger than the minimum SINR which still allows a reliable (albeit low-rate) transmission supported by the system. The number of clusters selected may depend on the feedback bandwidth and the request transmission rate. In one embodiment, the subscriber always tries to send the information about as many clusters as possible from which the base station chooses.

[0057] The estimated SINR values are also used to choose the appropriate coding/modulation rate for each duster as discussed above. By using an appropriate SINR indexing scheme, an SINR index may also indicate a particular coding and modulation rate that a subscriber desires to use. Note that even for the same subscribers, different dusters can have different modulation/coding rates.

[0058] Pilot symbols serve an additional purpose in determining interference among the cells. Since the pilots of multiple cells are broadcast at foe same time, they will interfere with each other (because they occupy the entire frequency band). This collision of pilot symbols may be used to determine the amount of interference as a worst case scenario. Therefore, in one embodiment, the above SINR estimation using this method is conservative in that the measured interference level is the worst-case scenario, assuming that all the interference sources are on. Thus, foe structure of pilot symbols is such that it occupies the entire frequency band and causes collisions among different cells for use in detecting the worst case SINR in packet transmission systems.

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[0059] During data traffic periods, the subscribers can determine the level of interference again. The data traffic periods are used to estimate the intra-cell traffic as well as the inter-cell interference level. Specifically, the power difference during the pilot and traffic periods may be used to sense the (intracell) traffic loading and inter-cell interference to select the desirable dusters. [0060] The interference level on certain clusters may be lower, because these dusters may be unused in the neighboring cells. For example, in cell A, with respect to duster A there is less interference because duster A is unused in cell B (while it is used in cell C). Similarly, in cell A, duster B will experience lower interference from cell B because duster B is used in cell B but not in cell C.

[0061] The modulation/coding rate based on this estimation is robust to frequent interference changes resulted from bursty packet transmission. This is because the rate prediction is based on the worst case situation in which all interference sources are transmitting.

[0062] In one embodiment, a subscriber utilizes the information available from both the pilot symbol periods and the data traffic periods to analyze the presence of both the intra-cell traffic load and inter-cell interference. The goal of the subscriber is to provide an indication to the base station as to those dusters that the subscriber desires to use. Ideally, the result of the selection by the subscriber is clusters with high channel gain, low interference from other cells, and high availability. The subscriber provides feedback information that indudes the results, listing desired dusters in order or not as described herein. 100631 Figure 3 illustrates one embodiment of subscriber processing. The processing is performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., dedicated logic, circuitry, etc.), software (such as that which runs on, for example, a general purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both.

[0064] Referring to Figure 3, channel/interference estimation processing block 301 performs channel and interference estimation in pilot periods in response to pilot symbols. Traffic/interference analysis processing block 302 performs

-14CA 02884656 2015-03-10 traffic and interference analysis in data periods in response to signal information and information from channel/interference estimation block 301.

[0065] Cluster ordering and rate prediction processing block 303 is coupled to outputs of channel/interference estimation processing block 301 and traffic/interference analysis processing block 302 to perform cluster ordering and selection along with rate prediction.

[0066] The output of cluster ordering processing block 303 is input to cluster request processing block 304, which requests clusters and modulation/coding rates. Indications of these selections are sent to the base station. In one embodiment, the SINR on each cluster is reported to the base station through an access channel. The information is used for cluster selection to avoid clusters with heavy intra-cell traffic loading and/or strong interference from other cells. That is, a new subscriber may not be allocated use of a particular cluster if heavy intra-cell traffic loading already exists with respect to that cluster. Also, clusters may not be allocated if the interference is so strong that the SINR only allows for low-rate transmission or no reliable transmission at all.

[0067] The channel/interference estimation by processing block 301 is wellknown in the art by monitoring the interference that is generated due to fullbandwidth pilot symbols being simultaneously broadcast in multiple cells. The interface information is forwarded to processing block 302 which uses the information to solve the following equation:

Ηβ,+Ι,+η, = y, where S, represents the signal for subcarrier (freq. band) i, I, is the interference for subcarrier i, n_t is the noise associated with subcarrier i, and y, is the observation for subcarrier i. In the case of 512 subcarriers, i may range from 0 to 511. The I, and n, are not separated and may be considered one quantity.

The interference/noise and channel gain H, are not know. During pilot periods, the signal S₍ representing the pilot symbols, and the observation y_f are knowns, thereby allowing determination of toe channel gain H_i for the case where there

-15CA 02884656 2015-03-10 is no interference or noise. Once this is known, it may be plugged back into the equation to determine the interference/noise during data periods since H_j, S, and y, are all known.

[0068] The interference information from processing blocks 301 and 302 are used by the subscriber to select desirable clusters. In one embodiment, using processing block 303, the subscriber orders clusters and also predicts the data rate that would be available using such clusters. The predicted data rate information may be obtained from a look up table with precalculated data rate values. Such a look up table may store the pairs of each SINR and its associated desirable transmission rate. Based on this information, the subscriber selects clusters that it desires to use based on predetermined performance criteria.

Using the ordered list of clusters, the subscriber requests the desired clusters along with coding and modulation rates known to the subscriber to achieve desired data rates.

[0069] Figure 4 is one embodiment of an apparatus for the selection of clusters based on power difference. The approach uses information available during both pilot symbol periods and data traffic periods to perform energy detection. The processing of Figure 4 may be implemented in hardware, (e.g., dedicated logic, circuitry, etc.), software (such as is run on, for example, a general purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both.

[0070] Referring to Figure 4, a subscriber includes SINR estimation processing block 401 to perform SINR estimation for each cluster in pilot periods, power calculation processing block 402 to perform power calculations for each cluster in pilot periods, and power calculation processing block 403 to perform power calculations in data periods for each cluster. Subtractor 404 subtracts the power calculations for data periods from processing block 403 from those in pilot periods from processing block 402. The output of subtractor 404 is input to power difference ordering (and group selection) processing block 405 that performs cluster ordering and selection based on SINR and the power difference between pilot periods and data periods. Once the clusters have been selected.

-16CA 02884656 2015-03-10 the subscriber requests the selected clusters and the coding/modulation rates with processing block 406.

[0071] More specifically, in one embodiment, the signal power of each cluster during the pilot periods is compared with that during the traffic periods, according to the following:

7), = + F, + ,

P_N, with no signal and interference P_s + P_N, with signal only

P, + P_N, with interference only + P, + P#, with both signal and interference

P_s+Pj, with no signal and interference P_t, with signal only Pj, with interference only 0, with both signal and interference where P_p is the measured power corresponding to each cluster during pilot periods, P_D is the measured power during the traffic periods, P_s is the signal power, P_t is the interference power, and P_N is the noise power.

[0072] In one embodiment, the subscriber selects dusters with relatively large P_p /(Pp ~ Pd) (^e-g·/ larger than a threshold such as lOdB) and avoids clusters with low P_p /(P. - P_D) (e.g., lower than a threshold such as lOdB) when possible.

[0073] Alternatively, the difference may be based on the energy difference between observed samples during the pilot period and during the data traffic period for each of the subcarriers in a duster such as the following:

Δ,-ΚΙ-Μ

Thus, the subscriber sums the differences for all subcarriers.

-17CA 02884656 2015-03-10

[0074] Depending on the actual implementation, a subscriber may use the following metric, a combined function of both SINR and P_e - P_D, to select the clusters:

= /(SINR,P,/(P,-P_D) where/ is a function of the two inputs. One example of / is weighted averaging (e.g., equal weights). Alternatively, a subscriber selects a cluster based on its SINR and only uses the power difference P_p - P_D to distinguish clusters with similar SINR. The difference may be smaller than a threshold (e.g., 1 dB).

[0075] Both the measurement of SINR and P_p - P_D can be averaged over time to reduce variance and improve accuracy. In one embodiment, a moving-average time window is used that is long enough to average out the statistical abnormity yet short enough to capture the time-varying nature of channel and interference, e.g., 1 millisecond.

Feedback Format for Downlink Cluster Allocation

[0076] In one t ibodiment, for the downlink, the feedback contains both the indices of selected clusters and their SINR. An exemplary format for arbitrary cluster feedback is shown in Figure 5. Referring to Figure 5, the subscriber provides a cluster index (ID) to indicate the cluster and its associated SINR value. For example, in the feedback, the subscriber provides cluster ID1 (501) and the SINR for the cluster, SINR1 (502), cluster ID2 (503) and the SINR for the cluster, SINR2 (504), and cluster ID3 (505), and the SINR for the cluster, S1NR3 (506), etc. The SINR for the cluster may be created using an average of the SINRs of the subcarriers. Thus, multiple arbitrary dusters can be selected as the candidates. As discussed above, the selected dusters can also be ordered in the feedback to indicate priority. In one embodiment, the subscriber may form a priority list of dusters and sends back the SINR information in a descending order of priority.

-18CA 02884656 2015-03-10

[0077] Typically, an index to the SINR level, instead of the SIMR itself is sufficient to indicate the appropriate coding/modulation for the cluster. For example, a 3-bit field can be used for SINR indexing to indicate 8 different rates of adaptive coding/modulation.

An Exemplary Base Station

[00781 The base station assigns desirable clusters to the subscriber making the request. In one embodiment, the availability of the cluster for allocation to a subscriber depends on the total traffic load on the cluster. Therefore, the base station selects the clusters not only with high SINR, but also with low traffic load.

[0079] Figure 13 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a base station.

Referring to Figure 13, duster allocation and load scheduling controller 1301 (duster allocator) collects all the necessary information, including the downlink/uplink SINR of dusters specified for each subscriber (e.g., via SINR/rate indices signals 1313 received from OFDM transceiver 1305) and user data, queue fullness/traffic load (e.g., via user data buffer information 1311 from multi-user data buffer 1302). Using this information, controller 1301 makes the decision on duster allocation and load scheduling for each user, and stores the dedsion information in a memory (not shown). Controller 1301 informs the subscribers about the decisions through control signal channels (e.g., control signal/duster allocation 1312 via OFDM transceiver 1305). Controller 1301 updates the decisions during retraining.

[0080] In one embodiment, controller 1301 also performs admission control to user access since it knows the traffic load of the system. This may be performed by controlling user data buffers 1302 using admission control signals 1310.

[0081] The packet data of User 1 - N are stored in the user data buffers 1302. For downlink, with the control of controller 1301, multiplexer 1303 loads the user data to duster data buffers (for Cluster 1 ~ M) waiting to be transmitted. For the uplink, multiplexer 1303 sends the data in the duster buffers to the

-19CA 02884656 2015-03-10 corresponding user buffers. Cluster buffer 1304 stores the signal to be transmitted through OFDM transceiver 1305 (for downlink) and the signal received from transceiver 1305. In one embodiment, each user might occupy multiple clusters and each cluster might be shared by multiple users (in a timedivision-multiplexing fashion).

Group-Based Cluster Allocation

[0082] In another embodiment, for the downlink, the clusters are partitioned into groups. Each group can include multiple clusters. Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary partitioning. Referring to Figure 6, groups 1-4 are shown with arrows pointing to clusters that are in each group as a result of the partitioning.

In one embodiment, the clusters within each group are spaced far apart over the entire bandwidth. In one embodiment, the clusters within each group are spaced apart farther than the channel coherence bandwidth, Le. the bandwidth within which the channel response remains roughly the same. A typical value of coherence bandwidth is 100 kHz for many cellular systems. This improves frequency diversity within each group and increases the probability that at least some of the clusters within a group can provide high S1NR. The dusters may be allocated in groups.

[0083] Goals of group-based duster allocation indude reducing the data bits for duster indexing, thereby reducing tire bandwidth requirements of the feedback channel (information) and control channel (information) for duster allocation. Group-based duster allocation may also be used to reduce inter-cell interference. [0084] After receiving the pilot signal from the base station, a subscriber sends back the channel information on one or more duster groups, simultaneously or sequentially. In one embodiment, only the information on some of the groups is sent back to the base station. Many criteria can be used to choose and order the groups, based on the channel information, the inter-cell interference levels, and the intra-cell traffic load on each duster.

-20CA 02884656 2015-03-10

[0085] In one embodiment, a subscriber first selects the group with the best overall performance and then feedbacks the SINR information for the clusters in that group. The subscriber may order the groups based on their number of clusters for which the SINR is higher than a predefined threshold. By transmitting the SINR of all the clusters in the group sequentially, only the group index, instead of all the cluster indices, needs to be transmitted. Thus, the feedback for each group generally contains two types of information: the group index and the SINR value of each cluster within the group. Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary format for indicating a group-based cluster allocation. Referring to Figure 7, a group ID, ID1, is followed by the SINR values for each of the clusters in the group. This can significantly reduce the feedback overhead.

[0086] Upon receiving the feedback information from the subscriber, the cluster allocator at the base station selects multiple clusters from one or more groups, if available, and then assigns the clusters to the subscriber. This selection may be performed by an allocation in a media access control portion of the base station. [0087] Furthermore, in a multi-cell environment, groups can have different priorities associated with different cells. In one embodiment, the subscriber's selection of a group is biased by the group priority, which means that certain subscribers have higher priorities on the usage of some groups than the other subscribers.

[0088] In one embodiment, there is no fixed association between one subscriber and one cluster group; however, in an alternative embodiment there may be such a fixed association. In an implementation having a fixed association between a subscriber and one or more cluster groups, the group index in the feedback information can be omitted, because this information is known to both subscriber and base station by default.

[0089] In another embodiment, the pilot signal sent from tire base station to the subscriber also indicates the availability of each cluster, e.g., the pilot signal shows which dusters have already been allocated for other subscribers and which dusters are available for new allocations. For example, the base station

-21CA 02884656 2015-03-10 can transmit a pilot sequence 11111111 on the subcarriers of a cluster to indicate that the duster is available, and 1111-1-1-1-1 to indicate the duster is not available. At the receiver, the subscriber first distinguishes the two sequences using the signal processing methods which are well known in the art, e.g., the correlation methods, and then estimates the channel and interference level.

[0090] With the combination of this information and the channel characteristics obtained by the subscriber, the subscriber can prioritize the groups to achieve both high SINR and good load balancing.

[0091] In one embodiment, the subscriber protects the feedback information by using error correcting codes. In one embodiment, the SINR information in the feedback is first compressed using source coding techniques, e.g., differential encoding, and then encoded by the channel codes.

[0092] Figure 8 shows one embodiment of a frequency reuse pattern for an exemplary cellular set up. Each cell has hexagonal structure with six sectors using directional antennas at the base stations. Between the cells, the frequency reuse factor is one. Within each cell, the frequency reuse factor is 2 where the sedors use two frequendes alternatively. As shown in Figure 8, each shaded sector uses half of the available OFDMA dusters and each unshaded sector uses the other half of the dusters. Without loss of generality, the dusters used by the shaded sectors are referred to herein as odd clusters and those used by the unshaded sectors are referred to herein as even dusters.

[0093] Consider the downlink signaling with omni-directional antennas at the subscribers. From Figure 8, it is dear that for the downlink in the shaded sectors, Cell A interferes with Cell B, which in turn interferes with Cell C, which in turn interferes with Cell A, namely, A -&gt; B -&gt; C -&gt;A. For the unshaded sectors. Cell A interferes with Cell C, which in turn interferes with Cell B, which in him interferes with Cell A, namely, A -&gt; C -&gt; B -&gt;A.

[0094] Sector Al receives interference from Sector Cl, but its transmission interferes with Sector BI. Namely, its interference source and the victims with which it interferes are not the same. This might cause a stability problem in a

-22CA 02884656 2015-03-10 distributed duster-allocation system using interference avoidance: if a frequency duster is assigned in Sector Bl but not in Sector Cl, the duster may be assigned in Al because it may be seen as clean in Al. However, the assignment of this duster Al can cause interference problem to the existing assignment in Bl,

[0095] In one embodiment, different duster groups are assigned different priorities for use in different cells to alleviate the aforementioned problem when the traffic load is progressively added to a sector. The priority orders are jointly designed such that a duster can be selectively assigned to avoid interference from its interference source, while reducing, and potentially minimizing, the probability of causing interference problem to existing assignments in other cells.

[0096] Using the aforementioned example, the odd dusters (used by the shaded sectors) are partitioned into 3 groups: Group 1,2,3. The priority orders are listed in Table 2.

Table 2: Priority ordering for the downlink of the shaded sectors.

<td> Priority Ordering</td><td> Cell A</td><td> CeUB</td><td> CellC</td>

<td> 1</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 3</td><td> Group 2</td>

<td> 2</td><td> Group 2</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 3</td>

<td> 3</td><td> Group 3</td><td> Group 2</td><td> Group 1</td>

[0097] Consider Sector Al. First, the dusters in Group 1 are selectively assigned. If there are still more subscribers demanding dusters, the dusters in Group 2 are selectively assigned to subscribers, depending on the measured SINK (avoiding the dusters receiving strong interference from Sector Cl). Note that the newly assigned dusters from Group 2 to Sector Al shall not cause interference problem in Sector Bl, unless the load in Sector Bl is so heavy that the dusters in both Group 3 and 1 are used up and the dusters in Group 2 are also used. Table 3 shows the duster usage when less than 2/3 of all the available dusters are used in Sector Al, Bl, and Cl.

-23CA 02884656 2015-03-10

Table 3: Cluster usage for the downlink of the shaded sectors with less than 2/3 of the full load.

<td> Cluster Usage</td><td> Cell A</td><td> CellB</td><td> CellC</td>

<td> 1</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 3</td><td> Group 2</td>

<td> 2</td><td> Group 2</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 3</td>

<td> 3</td><td></td><td></td><td></td>

[0098] Table 4 shows the priority orders for the unshaded sectors, which are 5 different from those for the shaded sectors, since the interfering relationship is reversed.

Table 4: Priority ordering for the downlink of the unshaded sectors.

<td> Priority Ordering</td><td> Cell A</td><td> CellB</td><td> CellC</td>

<td> 1</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 2</td><td> Group 3</td>

<td> 2</td><td> Group 2</td><td> Group 3</td><td> Group 1</td>

<td> 3</td><td> Group 3</td><td> Group 1</td><td> Group 2</td>

Intelligent Switching between Coherence and Diversity Clusters

[0099] In one embodiment, there are two categories of clusters: coherence dusters, containing multiple subcarriers dose to each other and diversity dusters, containing multiple subcarriers with at least some of the subcarriers spread far apart over the spectrum. The doseness of the multiple subcarriers in coherence dusters is preferably within the channel coherence bandwidth, i.e. the bandwidth within which the channel response remains roughly the same, which is typically within 100 kHz for many cellular systems. On the other hand, the spread of subcarriers in diversity dusters is preferably larger than the channel coherence bandwidth, typically within 100 kHz for many cellular systems. Of course, the larger the spread, the better the diversity. Therefore, a general goal in such cases is to maximize the spread.

[0100] Figure 9 illustrates exemplary duster formats for coherence dusters and diversity dusters for Cells A-C Referring to Figure 9, for cells A-C, tile labeling

-24CA 02884656 2015-03-10 of frequencies (subcarriers) indicates whether the frequencies are part of coherence or diversity clusters. For example, those frequencies labeled 1-8 are diversity clusters and those labeled 9-16 are coherence clusters. For example, all frequencies labeled 1 in a cell are part of one diversity cluster, all frequencies labeled 2 in a cell are part of another diversity duster, etc., while the group of frequendes labeled 9 are one coherence duster, the group of frequencies labeled 10 are another coherence duster, etc. The diversity dusters can be configured differently for different cells to reduce the effect of inter-cell interference through interference averaging.

[0101] Figure 9 shows example duster configurations for three neighboring cells. The interference from a particular duster in one cell are distributed to many dusters in other cells, e.g., the interference from Cluster 1 in Cell A are distributed to Cluster 1,8,7,6 in Cell B. This significantly reduces the interference power to any particular duster in Cell B. Likewise, the interference to any particular duster in one cell comes from many different dusters in other cells. Since not all duster are strong interferers, diversity dusters, with channel coding across its subcarriers, provide interference diversity gain. Therefore, it is advantageous to assign diversity dusters to subscribers that are dose (e.g., within the coherent bandwidth) to the cell boundaries and are more subject to inter-cell interference.

[0102] Since the subcarriers in a coherence duster are consecutive or dose (e.g., within the coherent bandwidth) to each other, they are likely within the coherent bandwidth of the channel fading. Therefore, the channel gain of a coherence duster can vary significantly and duster selection can greatly improve the performance. On the other hand, the average channel gain of a diversity duster has less of a degree of variation due to the inherent frequency diversity among the multiple subcarriers spread over the spectrum. With channel coding across the subcarriers within the duster, diversity dusters are more robust to duster mis-selection (by the nature of diversification itself), while yielding possibly less gain from duster selection. Channel coding across the subcarriers means that

-25CA 02884656 2015-03-10 each codeword contains bits transmitted from multiple subcarriers, and more specifically, the difference bits between codewords (error vector) are distributed among multiple subcarriers.

[01031 More frequency diversity can be obtained through subcarrier hopping over time in which a subscriber occupies a set of subcarriers at one time slot and another different set of subcarriers at a different time slot. One coding unit (frame) contains multiple such time slots and the transmitted bits are encoded across the entire frame.

[0104] Figure 10 illustrates diversity cluster with subcarrier hopping. Referring to Figure 10, there are four diversity clusters in each of cells A and B shown, with each subcarrier in individual diversity clusters having the same label (1,2,

3, or 4). There are four separate time slots shown and during each of the time slots, the subcarriers for each of the diversity clusters change. For example, in cell A, subcarrier 1 is part of diversity cluster 1 during time slot 1, is part of diversity cluster 2 during time slot 2, is part of diversity cluster 3 during time slot 3, and is part of diversity cluster 4 during time slot 4. Thus, more interference diversity can be obtained through subcarrier hopping over time, with further interference diversity achieved by using different hopping patterns for different cells, as shown in Figure 10.

[0105] The manner in which the subscriber changes the subcarriers (hopping sequences) can be different for different cells in order to achieve better interference averaging through coding.

[0106] For static subscribers, such as in fixed wireless access, the channels change very little over time. Selective cluster allocation using the coherence clusters achieves good performance. On the other hand, for mobile subscribers, the channel time variance (the variance due to changes in the channel over time) can be very large. A high-gain duster at one time can be in deep fade at another. Therefore, duster allocation needs to be updated at a rapid rate, causing significant control overhead. In this case, diversity dusters can be used to provide extra robustness and to alleviate the overhead of frequent duster

-26CA 02884656 2015-03-10 réallocation. In one embodiment, cluster allocation is performed faster than the channel changing rate, which is often measured by the channel Doppler rate (in Hz), i.e. how many cycles the channel changes per second where the channel is completely different after one cycle. Note that selective cluster allocation can be performed on both coherence and diversity clusters.

[01071 In one embodiment, for cells containing mixed mobile and fixed subscribers, a channel/interference variation detector can be implemented at either the subscriber or the base station, or both. Using the detection results, the subscriber and the base station intelligently selects diversity clusters to mobile subscribers or fixed subscribers at cell boundaries, and coherence clusters to fixed subscribers close to the base station. The channel/interference variation detector measures the channel (SINR) variation from time to time for each cluster. For example, in one embodiment, the channel/interference detector measures the power difference between pilot symbols for each cluster and averages the difference over a moving window (e.g., 4 time slots). A large difference indicates that channel/interference changes frequently and subcarrier allocation may be not reliable. In such a case, diversity clusters are more desirable for the subscriber.

[0108] Figure 11 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process for intelligent selection between diversity clusters and coherence dusters depending on subscribers mobility. The process is performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as that which runs on, for example, a general purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both.

[0109] Referring to Figure 11, processing logic in the base station performs channel/interference variation detection (processing block 1101). Processing logic then tests whether the results of the channel/interference variation detection indicate that the user is mobile or in a fixed position dose to the edge of the cell (processing block 1102). If the user is not mobile or is not in a fixed position dose to the edge of the cell, processing transitions to processing block

-27CA 02884656 2015-03-10

1103 where processing logic in the base station selects coherence clusters; otherwise, processing transitions to processing block 1104 in which processing logic in the base station selects diversity clusters.

[0110] In one embodiment, the base station determines whether a subscriber is mobile or fixed by detecting a rate of change of pilot signals, or the normalized channel variation, and determining that the rate of change is greater than a predetermined threshold. The normalized instantaneous difference between

III — H I² channels may be represented as ——where H, represents the channel and l^Hi| i is the index to represent the individual channels.

[0111] The threshold is system dependent For example, the rate of change is greater than 10% (although any precentage (e.g., 20%) could be used), then the base station concludes that the subscriber is mobile. In one embodiment, if the constant period in signaling is not greater than a multiple of the round trip delay (e.g., 5 times the round trip delay), then the base station determines that the subscriber is mobile and allocates diversity dusters; otherwise, the base station allocates coherence clusters.

[0112] The selection can be updated and intelligently switched during retraining. [0113] The ratio/allocation of the numbers of coherence and diversity clusters in a cell depends on the ratio of the population of mobile and fixed subscribers. When the population changes as the system evolves, the allocation of coherence and diversity dusters can be reconfigured to accommodate the new system needs. Figure 12 illustrates a reconfiguration of duster dassification which can support more mobile subscribers than that in Figure 9.

[0114] Whereas many alterations and modifications of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art after having read the foregoing description, it is to be understood that any particular embodiment shown and described by way of illustration is in no way intended to be considered limiting. Therefore, references to details of various

-28CA 02884656 2015-03-10 embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims which in themselves recite only those features regarded as essential to the invention.