Ubiquisys Limited

Percello Ltd.

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Stephen Whittaker

Alan Carter

Aminu Wada Maida

Alan James Auchmuty Carter

Rafy Carmon

Amir Appel

Damien Le Gresley

There is described a method of controlling a basestation in a cellular wireless communications network, the method comprising, within the basestation, autonomously and dynamically adapting a maximum value for a total transmit power of the basestation, such that interference between the basestation and other access points in the vicinity is minimized.

Access point power control

A basestation, for use in a cellular communications network, is adapted to provide a cellular communications service in at least one active cellular communications network by transmitting signals on system downlink channels of the active network and by receiving signals on system uplink channels of the active network. The basestation is also adapted to receive signals on system downlink channels of the active network. Further, the basestation is adapted to receive signals on system downlink channels of at least one additional network, although it is unable to transmit signals on system downlink channels of the additional network. The additional network may operate in accordance with a different cellular standard from the active network, and/or may be operated by a different cellular network operator from the active network. For example, where the active cellular communications network is a UMTS network, the additional network may be a GSM network, such that said basestation is adapted to receive signals on system downlink channels of the GSM network and is unable to transmit signals on system downlink channels of the GSM network.

Basestation measurements

In a femtocell basestation of a cellular communications network, there is a potential difficulty that the basestation may be unable to select a scrambling code for its transmissions, without the risk of interference with other basestations using the same scrambling code. The femtocell basestation receives from a management system a list comprising at least one allowed scrambling code for femtocell basestations, and also detects, in information broadcast by at least one macrocell basestation, at least one allowed scrambling code available in an area containing the basestation. If it is determined that use of each scrambling code that is allowed and is available in an area containing the basestation would cause interference with another femtocell basestation, a parameter is set to ensure that a user equipment would perform a location update when moving between the coverage areas of said basestation and the other femtocell basestation. The parameter may be a MIB and/or SIB value tag.

Scrambling code selection

A basestation for a cellular communications network is intended to provide coverage over a small area, which may be within an area that already has cellular coverage from one or more existing basestations. The basestation is therefore able to detect signals transmitted from the other basestations, in order to make measurements of the radio environment. In particular, the basestation may be able to receive signals periodically on the system downlink frequencies.

Receiving signals from surrounding basestations

A basestation in a cellular communication system corrects frequency errors in signals generated within the basestation. The frequency errors may be corrected on the basis of signals transmitted by one or more other basestation within the network. As an alternative, the basestation may request information from one or mobile devices that are also able to detect transmissions from other basestations.

Basestation for cellular communication system

In a cellular communications network, it may be desirable for a large number of basestations to share one or a small number of scrambling codes. When a basestation identifies a desired scrambling code, which is also being used by another nearby basestation, steps are taken such that a location area update is triggered whenever a mobile communications device moves from a coverage area of the nearby basestation into a coverage area of said basestation. Further, the basestation establishes a first cell, using the desired scrambling code, and also establishes a second cell also served by the basestation, using a second scrambling code. By ensuring that mobile devices are preferentially served by the second cell, the possibility of interference with the nearby basestation is reduced.

Establishing colocated second cell using a second scrambling code by a femto base station

A basestation, for use in a cellular communications network, has a mechanism for reporting its transmit power. When the transmit power of the basestation is outside a reportable range, it reports an adjusted transmit power within the reportable range, and also transmits an adjustment factor, by which the adjusted transmit power differs from the transmit power. The basestation is also configured to adapt its power settings based on a reported transmit power of at least one other basestation, and is further configured to detect the reported transmit power of the at least one other basestation and to detect an adjustment factor transmitted separately by the at least one other basestation, and to adapt its power settings based on a sum of the reported transmit power and the adjustment factor.

Basestation power control

A basestation in a cellular communication system corrects frequency errors in signals generated within the basestation. The frequency errors may be corrected on the basis of signals transmitted by one or more other basestations within the network. As an alternative, the basestation may request information from one or more mobile devices that are also able to detect transmissions from other basestations.

Growing community of inventors

Newbury, United Kingdom

Stephen Whittaker