Transmit power selection for user equipment communicating with FEMTO cells

Priority claim under US Code Vol. 35, Article 119

0001This application is the priority benefit of US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 052,930 by the same applicant as the application, filed May 13, 2008, assigned Agent Document No. 081592P1 and incorporated herein by reference. Insist.

The present application generally relates to wireless communication, and more specifically, to, but not limited to, improvement of communication performance.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communications (eg, voice, data, multimedia services, etc.). The rapidly increasing demand for high-rate, multimedia data services poses the challenge of implementing efficient and robust communication systems with enhanced performance.

To complement the base stations of traditional mobile phone networks (eg macro cellular networks), small coverage base stations are widely known as access point base stations, home NodeBs, or femtocells and are more robust indoor wireless. May be used to provide coverage to mobile units. Typically, such small coverage base stations are connected to the Internet and mobile operator networks via digital subscriber line (DSL) routers or cable modems.

In a typical macrocellular deployment, RF coverage is planned and managed by the cellular network operator to optimize coverage between macro base stations. Femto base stations, on the other hand, may be privately installed and atypically deployed by subscribers. As a result, femtocells can cause interference in both macrocell upricks (UL) and downlinks (DL). For example, a femto base station installed near a residential window can cause significant downlink interference to access terminals outside the house that are not serviced by the femtocell. Similarly, on the uplink, home access terminals serviced by femtocells can cause interference at macro cell base stations (eg, macro Node B).

Femtocells interfere with each other and may also interfere with macrocells as a result of unplanned deployment. For example, in an apartment complex, a femto base station installed near the wall separating two houses can cause serious interference with the femto base station of an adjacent house. Here, the strongest femto base station recognized by the home access terminal (the strongest in terms of RF signal strength received by the access terminal) is for the access terminal due to the restrictive relevance policy enforced by the femto base station. It is not always the base station in service.

Thus, interference problems can occur in communication systems where the radio frequency (RF) coverage of femto base stations is not optimized by mobile operators and the deployment of such base stations is atypical. As a result, there is a need for improved interference management for wireless networks.

<figref num="1">FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of some sample embodiments of a communication system that includes large coverage and smaller coverage.</figref><figref num="2">FIG. 5 illustrates another representation of wireless communication configured to support a certain number of users in which various disclosed embodiments and embodiments are implemented.</figref><figref num="3">It is a schematic diagram which illustrates the coverage area of wireless communication.</figref><figref num="4">FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of some sample embodiments of a communication system that includes adjacent femtocells.</figref><figref num="5">It is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system including a femto node.</figref><figref num="6">It is a figure which shows some sample component which may be used for facilitating communication between nodes.</figref><figref num="7">FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of some sample embodiments of a femto node that support transmission power selection in user equipment communicating with the femto node.</figref><figref num="8">It is a simplified flowchart of the process of setting the transmission power of the user equipment which communicates with a femto node.</figref><figref num="9">It is a more detailed flowchart of the process of setting the transmission power of the user equipment communicating with the femto node by monitoring the busy display from the macro cell.</figref><figref num="10">It is a more detailed flowchart of the process of setting the transmission power of the user equipment which communicates with a femto node by monitoring the received signal power from a macrocell.</figref><figref num="11">FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of some sample embodiments of a device configured to set the transmit power of a user facility communicating with a femto node.</figref>

By convention, the various features illustrated in the drawings may not be drawn to the correct scale. Therefore, the dimensions of the various features may be scaled arbitrarily for clarity. In addition, some drawings may be simplified for clarity. Therefore, the drawings do not depict all the components of a given device (eg, device) or method. In addition, similar reference numbers may be used to specify similar features throughout the specification and drawings.

The term "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, case, or example." The embodiments described herein as "exemplary" are not necessarily construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.

The detailed description described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings is intended as an illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the invention and is not intended to represent the only embodiment in which the invention can be practiced. The term "exemplary" as used throughout this description means "to serve as an example, case or example" and should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other exemplary embodiments. .. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that exemplary embodiments of the invention may be practiced without the use of these particular details. In some cases, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram format to avoid obscuring the novelty of the exemplary embodiments proposed herein.

Various embodiments of the disclosure will be described later. The teachings herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms, and it is clear that any particular structure, function, or both disclosed herein is merely representative. Based on the teachings herein, one of ordinary skill in the art can implement the embodiments disclosed herein independently of any other embodiment, and two or more embodiments. Acknowledge that may be implemented in various ways. For example, the device may be implemented using any number of embodiments described herein, or such methods may be implemented and described herein 1 The method may be implemented in addition to one or more embodiments, or using other structures, functions, or structures and functions other than one or more embodiments. In addition, such devices may be implemented.

The teachings herein may be incorporated into various types of communication systems and / or system components. In some embodiments, the teachings herein specify one or more of the available system resources (eg, bandwidth, transmit power, coding scheme, interleaving scheme, etc.). (Depending on), it may be used in multiple access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users. For example, the teachings herein are: Frequency Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Systems, Multiple Access CDMA (MCCDMA), Broadband CDMA (W-CDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA, HSPA +) Systems, High Speed Downlink Packet Connections (HSPA, HSPA +) HSDPA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, quadrature frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, or other multiple access technologies. May apply to any one or combination of. Wireless communication systems that utilize the teachings herein are designed to implement one or more of IS-95, CDMA2000, IS-856, W-CDMA, TDSCDMA, and other standards. Sometimes. CDMA networks may implement wireless technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Connection (UTRA), CDMA2000, or some other technology. UTRA includes W-CDMA and Low Chip Rate (LCR). CDMA2000 technology includes IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. The TDMA network implements wireless technologies such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM®). OFDMA networks include evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE802.11, IEEE802.16, and IEEE802. 20, Implement wireless technologies such as Flash OFDM®. UTRA, E-UTRA and GSM® are part of the Universal Mobile Network Operator (UMTS). The teachings herein may be practiced in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) systems, and other types of systems. LTE is the publication of UMTS using E-UTRA.

Certain embodiments disclosed may be described using 3GPP terminology, but the teachings herein are 3GPP (Re199, Re15, Re16, Re17) technology and 3GPP2 (IxRTT, IxEV-DO). It should be understood that it may apply to RelO, RevA, RevB) technologies and other technologies.

Figure 1 shows a network that includes macro coverage (for example, a wide area cellular network such as a 3G network commonly referred to as a macro cell network) and smaller coverage (for example, a network environment based on a house or building). System 100 is illustrated. When a node such as access terminal 102A travels through the network, access terminal 102A provides macro coverage as represented by macro coverage area 110, macro access node 104 (macro in the specification). It may be serviced by a node (sometimes referred to as a node) at a certain location, but at the same time the access terminal 102A is a small scale that provides a smaller coverage as represented by the small coverage area 110. It may be serviced elsewhere by Access Node 108 (sometimes referred to herein as a Small Node). In some embodiments, the small node 108 may be used to provide incremental capacity gain, intra-building coverage, and different services (eg, for a more robust user experience).

As will be described in detail later, the small access node 108 is limited in that it may not provide certain services to certain nodes (eg, indoor access terminal 102B). As a result, coverage halls may be formed in macro coverage area 106.

The size of the coverage hole may depend on whether the macro access node 104 and the small node 108 operate on the same frequency carrier. For example, when nodes 104 and 108 are on the same channel (for example, when using the same frequency carrier), the coverage hole may exactly match the small coverage area 110. Thus, in this case, access terminal 102A may lose macro coverage when it is inside the small coverage area 110 (eg, as shown by the virtual diagram of access terminal 102B).

The small node 108 is, for example, a femto node or a pico node. The femto node may be an access node with a restricted coverage area, such as a house or an apartment. A node that provides coverage in an area smaller than the macro area and wider than the femto area is sometimes referred to as a pico node (for example, it provides a coverage area inside a commercial building). It should be acknowledged that the teachings herein may be practiced with various types of nodes and systems. For example, piconodes, or some other type of node, may provide the same or similar functionality as femtonodes for different (eg, larger) coverage areas. Thus, as more fully described below, piconodes, like femtonodes, may be restricted, and piconodes may be associated with one or more home access terminals, and so on.

When nodes 104 and 108 are on adjacent channels (eg, using different frequency carriers), smaller coverage holes 112 are created in macro coverage area 104 as a result of adjacent channel interference from smaller nodes 108. May be done. Thus, when the access terminal 102A operates on an adjacent channel, the access terminal 102A may receive macro coverage closer to the small node 108 (eg, just outside the smaller coverage hall 112). ..

The same channel coverage hole can be relatively large, depending on system design parameters. For example, if the interference of the small node 108 is at least as small as the thermal noise floor, then assuming the free space path loss and the worst case where there is no partition between the small node 108 and the access terminal 102B. The coverage hole may have a radius of about 40 meters with respect to the CDMA system, and the transmit power of the small node 108 is 0 dBm.

Thus, there is a contradiction between minimizing outages in macro coverage area 106 and maintaining proper coverage in the specified smaller environment (eg, coverage of femtonode 108 in the house). Exists. For example, if a restricted femto node 108 is at the edge of macro coverage area 106 and a busy access terminal approaches the femto node 108, the busy access terminal may lose macro coverage and stop calling. Is high. In such cases, one solution for macro cellular networks is to move the busy access terminal to another carrier (eg, with less adjacent channel interference from the femtonode). However, the use of separate carrier frequencies is not always practical due to the limited spectrum available to each operator. In any case, another operator may be using the carrier wave used by the femtonode 108. As a result, the visitor access terminal associated with another operator may be damaged by the coverage hole created by the femtonode 108 restricted with respect to this carrier.

FIG. 2 illustrates another representation of the wireless communication system 100 configured to support a certain number of users, where various disclosed embodiments and embodiments may be implemented. As an example, as shown in FIG. 1B, the wireless communication system 100 is, for example, a macro cell 102A-102G serviced by an access point (AP) 104 (eg, AP 104A-104G) to which each cell corresponds. Provides communication for multiple cells 120, such as. Each cell may be further divided into one or more sectors. Instead, the user equipment (various access terminals (AT) 102 (for example, AT 102A-102K), sometimes referred to as UE) are distributed throughout the system. Each AT 102 has an AT active. One or more APs on a forward link (FL) and / or a reverse link (RL) at a given point in time, depending on whether and, for example, are in a soft handoff state. May communicate with 104. The wireless communication system 100 may provide services over a large geographic area, for example, macrocells 102A-102G may target several blocks in the vicinity.

In various applications, other terms may be used to refer to macro node 104, femto node 108 or pico node. For example, macronode 104 may be configured or referred to as an access node, base station, access point, eNodeB, macrocell, macroNodeB (MNB), and so on. Similarly, the femtonode 108 may be configured or referred to as a home NodeB (HNB), home eNodeB, access point base station, femtocell, and the like. Similarly, a macro node, a femto node, or a cell associated with a pico node may be referred to as a macro cell, femto cell, or pico cell, respectively.

As mentioned above, the femtonode 108 may be restricted in some ways. For example, a given femto node 108 may serve only a limited set of access terminals 106. Thus, in a deployment with so-called restricted (or closed) relevance, a given access terminal 106 is a set of macro cell mobile networks and restricted femtonodes 108 (eg, in the corresponding user residence). May be serviced by a femtonode).

The restricted femto node 108 (sometimes referred to as the closed subscriber group home Node B) may be extended temporarily or permanently as needed. In some embodiments, a closed subscriber group (CSG) may be defined as a collection of access nodes (eg, femtonodes) that share a common access control list for access terminals. In some practices, all femtonodes in the region (or all restricted femtonodes) may operate on a designated channel, sometimes referred to as a femtochannel.

Various relationships may be defined between a restricted femto node and a given access terminal. For example, from the point of view of an access terminal, an open femto node may refer to a femto node whose relevance is not restricted. A restricted femtonode may refer to a femtonode that is restricted in some way (for example, restricted in terms of relevance and / or registration). A home femtonode may refer to a femtonode that an access terminal is authorized to access and operate. A guest femtonode may refer to a femtonode that is temporarily allowed access or operation by an access terminal. An alien femtonode may refer to a femtonode that an access terminal is not allowed to access or activate, for example, except in an emergency (eg, 911 call).

From the perspective of a restricted femtonode, a home access terminal (or home user facility, "HUE") may refer to an access terminal that is allowed to access the restricted femtonode. A guest access terminal may refer to an access terminal with temporary access to a restricted femto node. Alien access terminals may refer to access terminals that are not allowed access to restricted femtonodes, except in emergencies, perhaps such as 911 calls. Thus, in some embodiments, an alien access terminal is defined as an access terminal that is not qualified or authorized to register with a restricted femtonode. An access terminal currently restricted (eg, denied access) by a restricted femtocell may be referred to herein as a visitor access terminal. The visitor access terminal thus corresponds to the alien access terminal and may correspond to the guest access terminal when the service is temporarily not permitted.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of coverage map 300 for a network in which several tracking areas 302 (or routing areas or location areas) are defined. In particular, the coverage areas associated with the tracking areas 302A, 302B and 302C are defined by the thick lines in Figure 3.

The system communicates with each cell that is serviced by the corresponding access node 306 (eg, access nodes 306A-306C) through multiple cells 304 (represented by hexagons), such as macrocells 304A and 304B. Provides wireless communication. As shown in FIG. 3, access terminals 308 (eg, access terminals 308A and 308B) are distributed at various locations throughout the network at a given point in time. Each access terminal 308 has a forward link (FL) and / or a reverse link (FL) at a given point in time, depending on whether the access terminal 308 is active and, for example, in a soft handoff state. RL) May communicate with one or more access nodes 306 on.

Tracking area 302 further includes femto coverage area 310. In this embodiment, each of the femto coverage areas 310 (eg, femto coverage areas 310A-310C) is drawn within the macro coverage area 304 (eg, macro coverage area 304B). There is. However, it should be acknowledged that the femto coverage area 310 may not be completely located within the macro coverage area 304. In practice, a large number of femto coverage areas 310 may be defined with a predetermined tracking area 302 or macro coverage area 304. Similarly, one or more pico coverage areas (not shown) may be defined within a given tracking area 302 or macro coverage area 304. To reduce the complexity of FIG. 3, only a few access nodes 306, access terminals 308, and femtonodes 710 are shown.

FIG. 4 illustrates a network 400 in which the femtonode 402 is deployed in an apartment building. In particular, in this embodiment, the femtonode 402A is deployed in apartment 1 and the femtonode 402B is deployed in apartment 2. The femto node 402A is a home femto for the access terminal 404A. The femto node 402B is a home femto for the access terminal 404B.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, if femtonodes 402A and 402B are restricted, each access terminal 404 (eg, 404A and 404B) will be serviced by its associated (eg, home) femtonode 402. May only receive. However, in some cases, limited associations can lead to negative geometric conditions and femtonode failures. For example, in FIG. 4, the femto node 402A is closer to the access terminal 404B than the femto node 402B and therefore provides a stronger signal to the access terminal 404B. As a result, the femto node 402A may excessively interfere with reception on the access terminal 404B. Such a situation can therefore affect the coverage radius around the femtonode 402B, where the associated access terminal 404 first captures the system and remains connected to the system.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary communication system 500 in which one or more femtonodes are deployed inside a network environment. Connections in the femtonode environment may be variously established within the scope of this communication system 500. In particular, the system 500 includes a plurality of femtonodes 510 (eg, femtonodes 510A and 510B) installed in a relatively small network environment (eg, one or more user homes). Each femtonode 510 is connected to a wide area network 540 (eg, the Internet) and a mobile operator core network 550 via a DSL router, cable modem, wireless link, or other means of connection (not shown). Has been done. As described herein, each femtonode 510 is associated with an associated access terminal 520 (eg, access terminal 520A) and optionally another access terminal 520 (eg, access terminal 520B). May be configured to help. In other words, access to the femtonode 510 may be restricted, whereby a given access terminal 520 may be serviced by a designated (eg, home) set of femtonodes 510, but designated. It may not be serviced by an unsupported femtonode 510 (eg, a nearby femtonode 510). The access terminal 520 may also be referred to as user equipment 520 (UE) in this specification. The femto node 510 may also be referred to herein as the home node B (HNB).

Owners of Femtonode 510 may subscribe to mobile services, such as 3G mobile services offered through the mobile operator core network 550. In addition, access terminal 520 may be capable of operating in both macro and small (eg, residential) network environments. In other words, depending on the current location of the access terminal 520, the access terminal 520 may be inside the access node 560 of the macro cell mobile network 550, or a set of femto nodes 510 (eg, inside the corresponding user home 530). It may be serviced by one of the femtonodes 510A and 510B). For example, when a subscriber is outside his or her home, the subscriber may be serviced by a standard macro access node (eg, node 560), and when the subscriber is at home, the subscriber. May be serviced by a femto node (eg node 510A). The femto node 510 should be found to be backward compatible with the existing access terminal 520.

In the embodiments described herein, the owner of the femtonode 510 subscribes to a mobile service, such as a 3G mobile service provided through the mobile operator core network 550, and the UE 520 is a macrocellular. Capable of operating in both environmental and residential small network environments.

A home femtonode is a base station where an AT or UE is allowed to operate on this femtonode. A guest femtonode is a base station where an AT or UE is temporarily allowed to operate on this femtonode, and an alien femtonode is a base where an AT or UE is not allowed to operate on this femtonode. It is a station.

The femtonode 510 may be deployed at a single frequency or, optionally, at multiple frequencies. Depending on the special configuration, one or more single or multiple frequencies may overlap one or more frequencies used by the macro node (eg, node 560).

The access terminal 520 may be configured to communicate with either the macro network 550 or the femtonode 510, but not at the same time. Further, the access terminal 520 that receives the service from the femto node 510 may not be in the soft handover state with the macro network 550.

In some embodiments, the access terminal 520 may be configured to connect to a preferred femtonode (eg, the home femtonode of the access terminal 520) whenever this connection is possible. For example, whenever the access terminal 520 is in the user's home 530, it may be desirable for the access terminal 520 to communicate only with the home femtonode 510.

In some embodiments, the access terminal 520 operates within the macro cellular network 550, but is not present in the most preferred network (eg, as defined in the preferred roaming list). Terminal 520 may include periodic scanning of available systems to determine if a better system is currently available, followed by an attempt to associate with such a preferred system. System selection (BSR) may be used to continue exploring the most preferred network (eg, preferred femtonode 510). With the capture entry, the access terminal 520 may limit the search to specific bands and channels. For example, the search for the most preferred system may be repeated periodically. Upon discovery of the preferred femtonode 510, the access terminal 520 may select the preferred femtonode 510 that remains within its coverage area.

The teachings herein may be used in wireless multiple access communication systems that simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless access terminals. As mentioned above, each terminal may communicate with one or more base stations by transmission over forward and reverse links. A forward link (or downlink) refers to a communication link from a base station to a terminal, and a reverse link (or uplink) refers to a communication link from a terminal to a base station. This communication link may be established via a one-input, one-output system, a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system, or another type of system.

MIMO systems utilize multiplex transmit antennas (NT) and multiple receive antennas (NR) for data communication. The MIMO channel formed by NT transmitting antennas and NR receiving antennas is NS min {NT, NR} and is divided into multiple independent channels (NS), sometimes referred to as spatial channels. Sometimes. Each of the NS independent channels corresponds to a dimension. MIMO systems may offer improved performance (eg, higher throughput and / or higher reliability) when the additional dimensions created by multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized. ..

MIMO systems may support Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD). In the TDD system, the forward link transmission and the reverse link transmission are in the same frequency domain, so the reciprocity theorem allows the estimation of the forward link from the reverse link channel. This allows the access point to extract the transmit beam forming gain on the forward link when multiple antennas are available at the access point. The teachings herein may be incorporated into a node (eg, a device) that utilizes various components that communicate with at least one other node.

Figure 6 shows several sample components that may be used to facilitate communication between nodes. In particular, FIG. 6 illustrates a MIMO system 1500 wireless device 1510 (eg, access point) and wireless device 1550 (eg, access terminal). At access point 1510, traffic data for a certain number of data streams is fed from the data source 1512 to the transmit (TX) data processor 1514.

In some embodiments, each data stream is transmitted through its own transmit antenna. The TX data processor 1514 formats, encodes, and interleaves the traffic data in each data stream based on a special coding scheme selected for this data stream to provide encoded data.

The encoded data for each data stream may be multiplexed with pilot data using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) techniques. Pilot data is a known data pattern that is typically processed in a known way and may be used in receiver systems to estimate channel response. The multiplexed pilot data and encoded data in each data stream are then modulated (ie, symbol-mapped) based on the special modulation scheme selected for this data stream, as they affect the modulation symbols. To. As a non-limiting example, some suitable modulation schemes are two-phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), multi-level phase shift keying (M-PSK), and Multi-level quadrature keying (M-QAM).

The data rate, encoding, and modulation of each data stream may be determined by instructions executed by processor 1530. The data memory 1532 may store program code, data, and other information used by the processor 1530 or other components of the access point 1510.

Modulation symbols for all data streams may then be fed to the TX MIMO processor 1520 to further process the modulation symbols (for example, for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor 1520 then feeds the NT modulated symbol stream to the NT transceiver (XCVR) 1522 (eg, 1522A-1522T). In some embodiments, the TX MIMO processor 1520 applies beam forming weights to the symbols of the data stream and to the antenna on which the symbols are transmitted.

Each transceiver 1522 further tunes to an analog signal to provide one or more analog signals, to receive and process their respective symbol stream, and to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission over MIMO channels. For example, amplification, filtering, and up-conversion). The NT-modulated signal from transceivers 1522A-1522T is then transmitted from the corresponding NT antenna 1524 (eg, 1524A-1524T).

At the access terminal 1550, the transmitted modulated signal is received by the NR antenna 1522 (eg 1522A-1522R), and the signal received from each antenna 1522 is fed to the respective transceiver 1524 (eg 1554A-1554R). To. Each transceiver 1544 tunes (eg, filters, amplifies, and downconverts) each received signal, digitizes the tuned signal to provide a sample, and corresponds to the "received" symbol stream. Further process the sample to provide.

The Receive (RX) data processor 1560 then receives and processes the NR received symbol stream from the NR transceiver 1554 based on special receiver processing techniques to provide the NT "detected" symbol stream. The RX data processor 1560 then demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes each detected symbol stream to restore the traffic data for this data stream. Processing by the RX data processor 1560 is complementary to the processing performed by the TX MIMO processor 1520 and TX data processor 1514 on the access point 1510.

Processor 1570 periodically determines the precoding matrix to be used (discussed later). Processor 1570 organizes a reverse link message with a matrix index section and a rank value section. Data memory 1572 may store program code, data, and other information used by processor 1570 or other components of access terminal 1550.

Reverse link messages may contain various types of information about communication links and / or received data streams. The reverse link message is then processed by the TX data processor 1538, which further receives traffic data for a certain number of data streams from the data source 1536, modulated by the modulator 1580, and tuned by the transceivers 1554A to 1554R. It is returned to the access point 1510 via the respective antennas 1522A to 1552R.

At access point 1510, the modulated signal from access terminal 1550 is received by antenna 1524, tuned by transceiver 1522, demodulated by demodulator (DEMOD) 1540, processed by RX data processor 1542, and transmitted by access terminal 1550. Extract the reverse link message. Processor 1530 then determines the precoding matrix to be used to determine the beam formation weights, and then processes the extracted messages.

FIG. 6 further illustrates that a communication component may include one or more components that perform transmit power control operations as taught herein. For example, the code control component 1590 may work with the processor 1530 and / or other components of the access point 1510 and with another device (eg, access terminal 1550) as taught herein. Send / receive signals between. Similarly, the code control component 1592 may work with the processor 1570 and / or other components of the access terminal 1550 to send / receive signals to and from another device (eg, access point 1510). It should be acknowledged that for each of the wireless devices 1510 and 1550, the functionality of two or more of the above components may be provided by a single component. For example, a single processing component may provide the functionality of the code control component 1590 and processor 1530, and a single processing component may provide the functionality of the code control component 1592 and processor 1570.

Access terminals as described herein are referred to as mobile stations, user equipment, subscriber units, subscriber stations, remote stations, remote terminals, user terminals, user agents, or user devices. There is. In some implementations, such nodes are cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal information terminals (PDAs), handhelds with wireless connectivity. It may consist of, or include, a device, or any other suitable processing device connected to a wireless modem, implemented within them.

Thus, one or more aspects taught herein may consist of different types of equipment, be performed within different types of equipment, or include different types of equipment. Such devices include telephones (eg, cellular phones or smartphones), computers (eg, laptops), mobile communication devices, mobile computing devices (eg, personal information terminals), entertainment devices (eg, music or video devices, etc.). Alternatively, it may be equipped with a satellite radio), a global positioning system, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via a wireless medium.

As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the wireless node may include an access node (eg, an access point) for the communication system. Such access nodes provide a connection to or to a network (eg, a wide area network such as the Internet or cellular networks), for example, via a wired or wireless communication link. There is. Therefore, an access node may allow another node (eg, an access terminal) to access the network or some other function. Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that one or both nodes may be portable, or in some cases relatively non-portable. In addition, it should be acknowledged that wireless nodes (eg, wireless devices) may also have the ability to send / receive information in a non-wireless manner over a suitable communication interface (eg, over a wired connection). Is.

Wireless nodes may communicate over one or more wireless communication links that are based on the appropriate wireless communication technology or otherwise support the appropriate wireless communication technology. For example, in some embodiments, the wireless node may be associated with a network. In some embodiments, the network may include a local area network or a wide area network. A wireless device is one of a wide variety of wireless communication technologies, protocols, or standards (eg, CDMA, TDMA, OFDM, OFDMA, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, etc.) as disclosed herein. May support one or more, or use otherwise. Similarly, wireless nodes may support or otherwise use one or more of a wide variety of corresponding modulation or multiplexing schemes. The wireless node may thus include the appropriate component (eg, an air interface) and either use the above or other wireless communication technology to establish one or more wireless communication links, or this wireless. Communicate via a communication link. For example, a wireless node may include a wireless transceiver with associated transmitter and receiver components that may include various components that facilitate communication over wireless media (eg, signal generators and signal processors).

FIG. 7 illustrates the various components of the Access Node 700 (also referred to herein as the Femto Node 700) that may be used in one or more implementations as taught herein. To do. In some implementations, the femtonode 700 may not incorporate all of the components shown in Figure 7, while in other implementations the femtonode 700 may utilize most or all of the components shown in Figure 7. Should be acknowledged.

Simply put, the femto node 700 includes a transceiver 710 that communicates with other nodes (eg, access terminals). The transceiver 710 includes a transmitter 712 that transmits a signal and a receiver 714 that receives the signal.

The femtonode 700 may further include a transmit power controller 740 that determines transmit power for the transmitter 712 and the user equipment 520 (FIG. 5) communicating with the femtonode 700. The femto node 700 includes a communication controller 782 that manages communication with other nodes and provides other related functions as taught herein. The femto node 700 may further include an authorization controller 784 that manages access to other nodes and provides other related functions as taught herein. The node detector 786 may determine if a special type of node is within a given coverage area.

The transmit power controller 740 may include an interference monitor 744 that monitors interference on macrocells that may be caused by user equipment 520 communicating with the femtonode 700. Interference may be based on total received signal strength and received pilot strength. The transmit power controller 744 may further include a signal-to-noise ratio determiner 742 that determines the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) associated with the femtonode 700.

The signal strength determiner 720 may determine the total received signal strength value (eg, received signal strength display RSSI). The receiving pilot strength determiner 730 may determine the signal strength value associated with the pilot signal. The path / bond loss determiner 760 may more completely determine the bond loss between the HUE and the macrocell in various ways described below.

The transmit power determiner 750 determines the acceptable transmit power that the HUE can use when communicating with the femtonode 700 so that it does not cause excessive interference on the macrocell, as described more fully below.

The busy display determiner 770 may monitor broadcasts from a macro cell that includes a busy display 772 that can indicate the amount of traffic and interference in the macro cell. The busy display determiner 770 may further include a femto busy display 774 for communication to the HUE 520 in order to regulate the transmit power of the HUE 520, as described more fully below.

Memory 790 may store a number of parameters that are useful in relation to the behavior of some functional elements. As an unrestricted embodiment, the memory 790 corresponds to a known or estimated relationship between the pilot intensity and the total signal as determined by the signal strength determiner 720 and the receive pilot intensity determiner 730. May include total signal strength relationship 732. The path / coupling loss value 718 may be a predetermined design parameter or a value derived by the path / coupling loss determiner 760. The receive / transmit (RX / TX) relationship 762 may be a predetermined design parameter or indicates the relationship between the downlink path loss at the femtocell 200 and the uplink path loss at the femtocell 200. It may be a derived value. The HNB / HUE relationship 764 may be a predetermined design parameter or a derived value indicating the relationship between the uplink path loss at the femtocell 200 and the uplink path loss at the HUE 520. The transmit power value 762 may include a value indicating the transmit power being used by the macro cell 560.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 7, when the HUE 520 is communicating with the femtonode 700, it may cause interference with the nearby macrocell base station 560. This interference can be so high when the HUE 520 is so far away from the femtonode 700 that the HUE 520 adjusts the transmit power of this HUE so high. This interference can be even stronger if the macrocell base station 560 is fairly close to the HUE 520 and the femtonode 700. Embodiments of the present invention monitor and detect interference in the macrocell base station 560, estimate whether the interference was caused by the HUE 520 communicating with the femtonode 700, and attempt to reduce the interference in the macrocell 560. Adjust the transmit power of the 520.

Under many circumstances, if the path loss from the HUE 520 to the femtonode 700 is fairly high, for example, if the HUE and the femtonode are long distances apart, or if an obstacle is interfering with the communication, then the HUE The 520 may be handovered from the femto node to the macro cell 560. However, in many situations it is desirable to keep the HUE 520 in communication with the femtonode 700 instead of the macrocell 560 whenever possible. As an unrestricted embodiment, the user may gain an economic advantage in operator fees when using the HUE 520 over the macrocell 560. Further, in order to free up the communication bandwidth in the macro cell 560, it is desirable to keep the HUE 520 in communication with the femto node 700 if the interference level in the macro cell 560 is managed. Therefore, in many situations, it is desirable to prioritize the femtonode 700 over the macrocell 560 and bias the communication of the HUE 520.

Of course, adjusting the transmit power of the HUE 520 is not always desirable. If the HUE 520 is not causing interference to the macrocell 560, it may be desirable to let the HUE 520 manage the transmit power of the HUE based on normal communication with the femtonode 700.

FIG. 8 is a simplified flowchart of the process of setting the transmission power of the user equipment communicating with the femto node. Figures 5, 7 and 8 are referenced when describing the transmit power setting process 800.

At operational block 810, the femtonode 700 (eg, HNB) monitors the effects that user equipment 520 (eg, HUE) may have on macrocell 560 while communicating with the femtonode 700. This monitoring adopts a different form depending on the communication system, as described later in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10. In most cases relating to embodiments of the present invention, the femtonode 700 attempts to adjust the transmit power of the user equipment 520 only if the user equipment is causing interference in the macrocell 560. Therefore, the femtonode 700 monitors the macrocell 560 for information that may indicate that the macrocell 560 is being interfered with by the user equipment 520.

At the operating block 830, the femtonode 700 determines the desired transmit power for the user equipment 520 that may reduce the interference caused by the user equipment 520 in the macrocell 560.

At the operating block 830, the femtonode 700 sends a message to the user equipment 520 instructing how the transmit power of the user equipment 520 should be adjusted. In the operating block 870, the user equipment 520 adjusts this transmit power when the communication in the operating block 850 tells it to adjust the transmit power.

Of course, the transmission power of the user equipment 520 does not necessarily have to be adjusted at all times. For example, if at some point the femtonode 700 determines that it is unlikely to interfere with the accessing terminal being visited, the femtonode 700 decides to instruct the user equipment 520 to increase the transmit power. Sometimes.

The determination block 890 is in active communication between the user equipment 520 and the femto node 700, if necessary, with the aim of further reducing interference in the macrocell 560 by further adjusting the transmit power of the user equipment 520. Instructs whether the process will continue. Thus, the loop continues to maintain adequate transmit power for communication with the femtocell 700, while the transmit power of user equipment 520 is periodically adjusted to minimize interference with macrocell 560. Create a feedback system that is possible.

FIG. 9 is a more detailed flowchart of the process 900 of setting the transmit power of the user equipment communicating with the femtonode by monitoring the busy display from the macrocell. Figures 5, 7, 8 and 9 are referenced in describing the busy display process 900 that regulates the transmit power of the user equipment 520. In describing the process of FIG. 9, the blocks represented by the dashed lines correspond to the operating blocks with the same reference numerals in FIG. Thus, FIG. 9 shows further details corresponding to the busy display process 900 for the operation of FIG.

In some systems (eg, CDMA2000), the macrocell 560 periodically transmits a busy display. The overall level of interference is tracked by macrocell 560 of the access network. The access network is configured to determine whether the overall level of interference is above or below the threshold value. If the interference level is below the threshold and indicates a low activity level, the access network negates a "busy bit" (sometimes referred to herein as a busy display). If the interference level is above the threshold and indicates a high activity level, the access network asserts a busy display. The busy display is then broadcast to all access terminals within range, notifying all access terminals of the level of activity / interference in the system.

Thus, as indicated by motion block 812, some embodiments of the present invention monitor busy display from macrocell 560 and store the busy display value or value history as busy display 772 in memory 790. The busy display judgment device 770 is used for this purpose. Note that, for the purposes of the embodiments of the present invention, the femtonode 700 typically merely monitors the busy display as a proxy to determine if the user equipment 520 is causing interference to the macrocell 560. In addition, the femtonode 700 correlates the busy display 772 with the transmit power of the user equipment 520 to perform an analysis as to whether the busy display 772 was set due to the user equipment 520.

At the operation block 814, the busy display determiner 770 constructs the femto busy display 774 using the busy display 772 from the macro cell 560, the past busy display 772, or the transmission power of the user equipment 520. To do. Rather than indicating the busy level between the femto node 700 and the user equipment 520, the femto busy display 774 is used to adjust the transmit power of the user equipment 520.

The femto busy display 774, in this simplest form, only reflects the value of the busy display 772 from the macrocell. However, the busy display 772 may be communicated in any time slot. Thus, for any slot, the femtonode 700 can decode the busy display 772, and in some embodiments it is possible to build a temporally filtered version of the busy display 772. The filter may contain a relatively small time constant to incorporate only the busy display 772 from some time slots. Alternatively, the time constant may be relatively large to incorporate the busy display 772 from many time slots.

In another embodiment, the femto node 700 is mounted while the user equipment 520 is inactive (eg, before starting communication with the femto node 700) and when the user equipment 520 is active (eg, femto). It is possible to monitor the busy display 772 while communicating with node 700). If the busy display 772 is inactive when the user equipment 520 is inactive and active when the user equipment 520 is active, the femtonode 700 changes the busy display 772 to the user. It may be concluded that it was brought about by equipment 520. As a result, the femto node asserts the femto busy display 774.

The determination block 832 tests the current value of the femto busy display 774 to determine what the femto node 700 should notify the user equipment 520.

If the femtobusy display 774 is asserted, then block 854 causes the femtonode 700 to transmit the asserted femtobusy display 774 to the user equipment 520. On the other hand, if the femtobusy display 774 is negated, the block 854 causes the femtonode 700 to transmit the negated version of the femtobusy display 774 to the user equipment 520 or not the femtobusy display 774 at all.

At the operating block 870, the user equipment 520 receives and decodes the femto busy display 774 as a conventional busy display, and conventionally receives the busy display from the macro cell 560 while the user equipment is communicating with the macro cell 560. Respond by reducing or increasing the transmit power of this user equipment, as if it had done. As a non-limiting embodiment, the means of adjusting the transmit power of the user equipment 520 is by reducing or increasing the uplink data rate of the user equipment.

The determination block 890 continuously adjusts the transmission power of the user equipment 520 while the communication is active, so that a feedback system is created as described above, if necessary.

FIG. 10 is a more detailed flowchart of the process 1000 of setting the transmit power of the user equipment communicating with the femtonode by monitoring the received signal power from the macrocell. Figures 5, 7, 8 and 10 are referred to in describing the receive signal power process 1000 that regulates the transmit power of the user equipment 520. In describing the process of FIG. 10, the blocks represented by the dashed lines correspond to the operating blocks with the same reference numerals in FIG. Thus, FIG. 10 shows further details corresponding to the received signal power process 1000 for the operation of FIG.

In process 1000, the femtonode 700 monitors the signal from macrocell 560 as a conventional UE does. From this signal monitoring, the femtonode is combined with the signal strength determiner 720, the receive pilot intensity determiner 730, and the path / coupling loss determiner 760 to estimate the interference caused by the user equipment 520 in the macrocell 560. It is possible to use the interference monitor 744.

At the operating block 822, the femtonode 700 detects the received signal power from the macrocell 560. In some embodiments, the signal strength determiner 720 may determine the total received signal strength value (eg, received signal strength display RSSI). In some embodiments, the receiving pilot strength determiner 730 may determine the signal strength value associated with the pilot (eg, received signal code power RSCP).

In some systems, the broadcast control channel BCCH carries a repeating pattern of system information messages that describe the system's configuration and available features. These messages may include the current transmit power of Macrocell Base Station 560.

At determination block 824, the femto node 700 determines if this broadcast value for the current transmit power is available. If available, operation block 826 directs the femtocell to detect and use this broadcast value for the current transmit power.

If no broadcast value for transmit power is currently available, operation block 828 instructs the femtonode 700 to retrieve the transmit power value 762 from memory 790. This transmit power value 722 may be the most probable transmit power preset value of the macrocell, or may be communicated to the femtonode 700 by other means, such as the wide area network 540.

The operation block 829 instructs the path / coupling loss determiner 760 to determine the downlink path loss. The downlink path loss that the femtonode 700 will suffer can be estimated as follows.

PL (dB) = CPICH_Tx_Power-Received Power Equation 1 In the equation, CPICH_Tx_Power is the common pilot channel transmit power, whether from the broadcast value or from the transmit power value 762 determined through means other than the broadcast means, and the receive power is the determined receive signal strength. Is.

The received signal strength may be determined by the signal strength determiner 720 (eg, received signal code power RSCP) or the signal strength value associated with the pilot signal as Ecp / Io (eg, pilot-to-noise ratio). It may be measured by the pilot intensity determiner 730.

The signal strength determiner 720 may determine the signal strength by various methods. For example, in some implementations, the femtonode 700 measures signal strength (for example, receiver 714 monitors the appropriate channel). In some practices, information related to signal strength may be received from another node (eg, a home access terminal). This information may take the form of, for example, an actual signal strength measurement (eg, from the node that measured the signal strength), or information that may be used to determine the signal strength value.

In some practices, the received pilot strength may be estimated from the total received signal strength. This determination is, for example, a known or estimated relationship between pilot strength and total strength embodied in the form of a pilot / total signal strength relationship 732 (eg, function, table or graph) stored in memory 790. May be based on. In such an implementation, the signal strength determiner 720 may include a receive pilot signal strength determiner 720.

Operation block 842 specifies that the interference monitor 744 correlates femto-uplink path loss with downlink path loss. This correlation may be approximated based on RX / TX relationship 762 information from memory 790. The operating block 844 specifies that the interference monitor 744 uses the HNB / HUE relationship 764 information from memory 790 to approximate the user equipment uplink path loss from the femto uplink path loss. If the user equipment 520 is relatively close to the femtonode 700, this approximation is quite accurate and decreases in accuracy as the user equipment 520 moves away from the femtonode 700. As a result, the femtonode 700 may add a margin to this approximation to account for variability.

The operating block 846 specifies that the transmit power determiner 750 determines an acceptable transmit power value for the user equipment 520 based on the approximated user equipment uplink path loss. As an unrestricted embodiment, in some systems, the femtonode 700 may specifically signal the maximum total power of the user equipment 520. In other systems, such signaling may not exist. However, the femtonode 700 makes the user equipment 520 more suppressive when determining the data rate by transmitting a busy display or by signaling a more suppressive medium access control (MAC) parameter. This may still limit the data rate of the user equipment 520.

Therefore, the femtonode 700 sends an "up" command to instruct the HUE 520 to increase the HUE's transmit power and a "down" command to instruct the HUE 520 to decrease the HUC's transmit power. May send or send power level commands to set a specific power level.

At the operating block 870, the user equipment 520 receives and decodes the TPC command and responds by reducing or increasing the transmit power of the user equipment as instructed by the TPC command.

The determination block 890 continuously adjusts the transmission power of the user equipment 520 while the communication is active, so that a feedback system is created as described above, if necessary.

The components described herein may be implemented in a wide variety of ways. With reference to FIG. 11, the device 1000 is represented as a series of interrelated blocks. In some embodiments, the functionality of these blocks may be implemented as a processing system that includes one or more processor components. In some embodiments, the functioning of these blocks may be performed using, for example, at least a portion of one or more integrated circuits (eg, ASICs). As described herein, integrated circuits may include processors, software, other related components, or any combination thereof. The function of these blocks may also be implemented in some other way as taught herein.

The device 1100 may include one or more modules that may perform one or more of the functions described above in connection with various drawings. For example, the interference level monitoring means 1102 may correspond to, for example, an interference monitor as described herein. The acceptable transmit power determination means 1104 may correspond to, for example, a transmit power determiner as described herein. The power limiting transmission means 1106 may correspond to, for example, a busy display determiner as described herein. The busy display receiving means and the femto busy display constructing means 1108 may correspond to a busy display determining device as described in the present specification, for example.

It should be understood that references to elements herein using instructions such as "first", "second", etc. generally do not limit the quantity or order of these elements. On the contrary, these instructions may be used herein as a convenient way to distinguish between two or more elements, or two or more cases of an element. Therefore, the reference to the first element and the second element means that only two elements are used here, or that the first element must somehow precede the second element. Does not mean. Similarly, a set of elements may contain one or more elements unless otherwise noted.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals are represented using any of a wide variety of techniques and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols and chips that may be referenced through the above description may be voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic or magnetic particles, light fields or particles, or any of these. It may be expressed by the combination of.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein, in electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. It will be further acknowledged that it may be implemented as. To articulate the compatibility of this hardware with software, various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described above in terms of these functions. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on special applications and design constraints placed on the entire system. Those skilled in the art may perform the described functions in a variety of ways for a particular application, but decisions of such practice shall be construed as deviating from the scope of exemplary embodiments of the invention. Should not be.

The various empirical logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein are general purpose processors designed to perform the functions described herein. , Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or Other Programmable Logic Equipment, Discrete Gate or Transistor Logic, Discrete Hardware Components, or These May be performed or performed with any combination of. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, or state machine. Processors are implemented, for example, as a combination of DSP and microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors linked to a DSP core, or any other combination of computing equipment such as this configuration. It may be done.

The method or algorithmic steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied in software modules executed directly by the processor, in hardware, or in combination. .. Software modules include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disks, and removable disks. , CD-ROM, or other types of storage media known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write the information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. Processors and storage media may reside in the ASIC. The ASIC may be present in the user terminal. Alternatively, the processor and storage device may exist as discrete components within the user terminal.

In one or more exemplary embodiments, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the function may be stored or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one location to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, without limitation, such computer readable media are RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, or instructions or It can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of a data structure, and can include any other medium accessible by a computer. Moreover, any connection is naturally referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, the software uses coaxial cables, fiber optic cables, stranded wires, digital subscriber lines (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, wireless and microwave to websites, servers, or other When transmitted from a remote source, wireless technologies such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, stranded, DSL, or infrared, wireless and microwave are included in the definition of medium. As used herein, discs (disks and discs) include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), flexible discs, and Blu-ray discs. So, while a disk usually reproduces data magnetically, a disc uses a laser to reproduce data optically.

The above description of the disclosed exemplary embodiments is provided to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to configure or use the present invention. Various changes to these exemplary embodiments will be immediately apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles set forth herein will not deviate from the spirit or scope of the invention of the other embodiments. May be applied to. Accordingly, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments presented herein, and to the widest possible extent consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. It should be acknowledged that there is.<u style="single">The scope of claims at the time of filing the application is described below.</u><u style="single">[1] At the femto node,</u><u style="single">Monitoring the interference level from the user equipment communicating with the femto node to the macrocell base station, and</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power for the user equipment according to the interference level,</u><u style="single">To transmit the power limit from the femto node to the user equipment according to the allowable transmission power, and to transmit the power limit to the user equipment.</u><u style="single">With the user equipment</u><u style="single">When instructed by the power limit, adjusting the transmission power of the user equipment and</u><u style="single">A method of wireless communication with.</u><u style="single">[2] Monitoring the interference level</u><u style="single">Receiving a busy display from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">Building a femto busy display according to the busy display</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power</u><u style="single">Further provided that when the femtobusy indication is asserted, it is determined that the acceptable transmit power should be reduced from the current transmit power.</u><u style="single">Sending the power limit</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be maintained, the femtobusy display is transmitted to the user equipment as negated, and</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be reduced, the femtobusy display is assumed to be asserted and transmitted to the user equipment.</u><u style="single">The method described in [1].</u><u style="single">[3] Monitoring the interference level</u><u style="single">Detecting the received signal power from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">Determining the transmission signal power from the macrocell base station</u><u style="single">To evaluate the transmission signal power and the reception signal power to determine the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power</u><u style="single">Approximating the uplink path loss from the user equipment to the macrocell base station according to the downlink path loss, and</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power according to the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">The method according to [1], wherein transmitting the power limit comprises transmitting the allowable transmit power.</u><u style="single">[4] The method according to [3], wherein the transmission signal power is determined from a broadcast message received from the macrocell base station.</u><u style="single">[5] The method according to [3], wherein the transmitted signal power is determined from a preset value or a value received via a wide area network.</u><u style="single">[6] Approximating the uplink path loss is</u><u style="single">To correlate the femto-uplink path loss with the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">Approximate the uplink path loss according to the femto uplink path loss.</u><u style="single">When,</u><u style="single">The method described in [3].</u><u style="single">[7] The interference level is monitored, the allowable transmission power is determined, the allowable transmission power is transmitted, and the transmission power is used to further improve the transmission power of the user equipment. The method described in [1], further comprising adjusting and repeating.</u><u style="single">[8] A busy display judge that detects a busy display from a macrocell base station close to a wireless communication device and constructs a femto busy display according to the busy display.</u><u style="single">A communication controller that transmits the femto busy display to a user device that communicates with the femto node.</u><u style="single">Femto node with.</u><u style="single">[9] The femto node according to [8], wherein the busy display determining device further constructs the femto busy display by temporally filtering a plurality of busy displays received from the macrocell base station.</u><u style="single">[10] The busy display determination device further</u><u style="single">The past busy display from the macrocell base station is detected before the communication link between the femto node and the user equipment, and the past busy display is detected.</u><u style="single">The current busy display from the macrocell base station is detected in the communication link,</u><u style="single">If the current busy display is negated, the femto busy display is negated.</u><u style="single">The femto node according to [8], wherein the femto busy display is asserted when the past busy display is negated and the current busy display is asserted.</u><u style="single">[11] A signal strength determiner that measures the received signal power from a macrocell base station near the femto node,</u><u style="single">A path loss determiner that calculates the downlink path loss at the femto node, and</u><u style="single">An interference monitor that correlates the uplink path loss in the user equipment communicating with the femto node with the downlink path loss in the femto node.</u><u style="single">A transmission power determiner that establishes an acceptable transmission power for the user equipment in response to the uplink path loss in the user equipment.</u><u style="single">A communication controller that transmits the allowable transmission power to the user equipment,</u><u style="single">Femto node with.</u><u style="single">[12] The path loss determiner is</u><u style="single">Decoding the broadcast value of the current transmission power from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">Subtracting the received signal power from the current transmission power and</u><u style="single">The femtonode according to [11], wherein the downlink path loss is calculated by.</u><u style="single">[13] The path loss determiner is</u><u style="single">Estimating the current transmission power from the macrocell base station from at least one of a predetermined value and a value received from communication via a wide area network, and</u><u style="single">Subtracting the received signal power from the current transmission power and</u><u style="single">The femtonode according to [11], wherein the downlink path loss is calculated by.</u><u style="single">[14] The path loss determiner further</u><u style="single">Correlating the femto uplink path loss with the downlink path loss at the femto node,</u><u style="single">Approximate the uplink path loss in the user equipment according to the femto uplink path loss.</u><u style="single">The femtonode described in [11].</u><u style="single">[15] The femto node according to [11], wherein the communication controller transmits the allowable transmission power to the user equipment as a transmission power limit, a data rate limit, or a combination of these limits.</u><u style="single">[16] Means for monitoring the level of interference from user equipment communicating with femtonodes to macrocell base stations,</u><u style="single">A means for determining the allowable transmission power for the user equipment according to the interference level, and</u><u style="single">A means for transmitting a power limit from the femto node to the user equipment according to the allowable transmission power, and</u><u style="single">Femto node with.</u><u style="single">[17] The means for monitoring the interference level is</u><u style="single">A means for receiving a busy display from the macrocell base station, and</u><u style="single">A means of constructing a femto busy display according to the busy display, and</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">The means for determining the allowable transmission power is</u><u style="single">Further provided by means of determining that the acceptable transmit power should be reduced from the current transmit power when the femtobusy indication is asserted.</u><u style="single">The means for transmitting the power limit is</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be maintained, the means for transmitting the femtobusy display to the user equipment as negated, and</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be reduced, the means for transmitting the femtobusy display to the user equipment as asserted, and</u><u style="single">The femto node described in [16], further comprising.</u><u style="single">[18] The means for monitoring the interference level is</u><u style="single">A means for detecting the received signal power from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">A means for determining the transmission signal power from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">A means for evaluating the transmission signal power and the reception signal power for determining the downlink path loss, and</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">The means for determining the allowable transmission power is</u><u style="single">A means for approximating the uplink path loss from the user equipment to the macrocell base station according to the downlink path loss, and</u><u style="single">A means for determining the allowable transmission power according to the downlink path loss, and</u><u style="single">With more</u><u style="single">The means for transmitting the power limit comprises transmitting the acceptable transmit power.</u><u style="single">The femtonode described in [16].</u><u style="single">[19] The femto node according to [18], wherein the transmission signal power is determined from a broadcast message received from the macrocell base station.</u><u style="single">[20] The femto node according to [18], wherein the transmitted signal power is determined from a preset value or a value received via a wide area network.</u><u style="single">[21] The means for approximating the uplink path loss is</u><u style="single">A means for correlating the femto-uplink path loss with the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">A means for approximating the uplink path loss according to the femto uplink path loss, and</u><u style="single">The femto node described in [18].</u><u style="single">[22] Monitoring the level of interference from the user equipment communicating with the femto node to the macrocell base station, and</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power for the user equipment according to the interference level,</u><u style="single">To transmit the power limit from the femto node to the user equipment according to the allowable transmission power, and to transmit the power limit to the user equipment.</u><u style="single">A computer program product that has a computer-readable medium with code that allows the computer to do so.</u><u style="single">[23] The code that causes the computer to monitor the interference level is</u><u style="single">Receiving a busy display from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">Building a femto busy display according to the busy display</u><u style="single">Let the computer do more</u><u style="single">The code that causes the computer to determine the acceptable transmit power</u><u style="single">If the femtobusy display is asserted, the computer is further made to determine that the acceptable transmit power should be reduced from the current transmit power.</u><u style="single">The code that causes the computer to transmit the power limit</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be maintained, the femtobusy display is transmitted to the user equipment as negated, and</u><u style="single">When the allowable transmission power should be reduced, the femtobusy display is assumed to be asserted and transmitted to the user equipment.</u><u style="single">To let the computer do more,</u><u style="single">The computer program product described in [22].</u><u style="single">[24] The code that causes the computer to monitor the interference level is</u><u style="single">Detecting the received signal power from the macrocell base station and</u><u style="single">Determining the transmission signal power from the macrocell base station</u><u style="single">To evaluate the transmission signal power and the reception signal power to determine the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">Let the computer do more</u><u style="single">The code that causes the computer to determine the acceptable transmit power</u><u style="single">Approximating the uplink path loss from the user equipment to the macrocell base station according to the downlink path loss, and</u><u style="single">Determining the allowable transmission power according to the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">Let the computer do more</u><u style="single">The code, which causes the computer to transmit the power limit, further causes the computer to transmit the acceptable transmit power.</u><u style="single">The computer program product described in [22].</u><u style="single">[25] The code that causes the computer to approximate the uplink path loss is</u><u style="single">To correlate the femto-uplink path loss with the downlink path loss,</u><u style="single">Approximating the uplink path loss according to the femto uplink path loss</u><u style="single">The computer program product according to [24], which causes the computer to perform further.</u>