In order to avoid interference efficiently and control the amount of radio resources that are not used for interference avoidance, the present invention provides a radio base station connected to a neighbor radio base station via inter-radio base station interface. The radio base station has: a radio communication section that performs radio communication with a user terminal using a UL/DL configuration indicating a configuration of uplink and downlink subframes in a radio frame; an interference detecting section that measures and detects interference that the radio base station suffers from; and a selecting section that uses an interference detection result as a basis to determine which to apply to each subframe, between a resource allocation-unrestricted scheme and an inter-cell uplink/downlink orthogonalization scheme.

In order to avoid interference efficiently and control the amount of radio resources that are not used for interference avoidance, the present invention provides a radio base station connected to a neighbor radio base station via inter-radio base station interface. The radio base station has: a radio communication section that performs radio communication with a user terminal using a UL/DL configuration indicating a configuration of uplink and downlink subframes in a radio frame; an interference detecting section that measures and detects interference that the radio base station suffers from; and a selecting section that uses an interference detection result as a basis to determine which to apply to each subframe, between a resource allocation-unrestricted scheme and an inter-cell uplink/downlink orthogonalization scheme.

A set of different pilot structures are designed for use in different environments and/or different user behaviours that are expected to occur in a cell. The radio conditions for a user are estimated. Each user is then assigned an area (108A-E) in resource space for its communication, which has a suitable pilot configuration. In one embodiment, the entire resource space is provided with different pilot structures in different parts (110A-D). In advance and allocation of resources to the users are then performed in order to match estimated radio conditions to the provided pilot structure. In another embodiment, allocation is performed first, and then the actual pilot structure is adapted within the allocated resource space area to suit the environmental conditions.

A set of different pilot structures are designed for use in different environments and/or different user behaviours that are expected to occur in a cell. The radio conditions for a user are estimated. Each user is then assigned an area (108A-E) in resource space for its communication, which has a suitable pilot configuration. In one embodiment, the entire resource space is provided with different pilot structures in different parts (110A-D). In advance and allocation of resources to the users are then performed in order to match estimated radio conditions to the provided pilot structure. In another embodiment, allocation is performed first, and then the actual pilot structure is adapted within the allocated resource space area to suit the environmental conditions.

A communication method and apparatus using a network slice. A method of performing communication on a control plane of a network system including an access network and a core network may receive an attach request from a user equipment, may perform a mutual authentication with the user equipment in response to the attach request, may retrieve a subscription profile for the user equipment in response to the attach request, when the mutual authentication is completed, and may determine a network slice for the user equipment based on the subscription profile.

A method of coordinating a small cell with a plurality of small cells includes estimating backhaul bandwidth and backhaul bandwidth utilization of the small cell; estimating aggregate bandwidth utilization for the small cell and the plurality of small cells based on the estimated backhaul bandwidth utilization for each of the small cells; selecting the small cell as a cluster head for a cluster of the small cells based on the estimated aggregate backhaul bandwidth utilization, the cluster including at least some of the small cells; and communicating, via the cluster head, information between a network entity and the small cells of the cluster.

A method of coordinating a small cell with a plurality of small cells includes estimating backhaul bandwidth and backhaul bandwidth utilization of the small cell; estimating aggregate bandwidth utilization for the small cell and the plurality of small cells based on the estimated backhaul bandwidth utilization for each of the small cells; selecting the small cell as a cluster head for a cluster of the small cells based on the estimated aggregate backhaul bandwidth utilization, the cluster including at least some of the small cells; and communicating, via the cluster head, information between a network entity and the small cells of the cluster.

A method and apparatus are provided for updating a sequence hopping (SH) pattern of an uplink channel during handover from a current cell having a current SH pattern. At least one downlink channel of each neighbor cell of the current cell is monitored. Information indicative of the monitored downlink channels of the neighbor cells is transmitted to the current cell. Prior to receiving a handover command from the current cell a target cell from among the neighbor cells is anticipated and a common downlink channel of the anticipated target cell is monitored to determine information representative of a target SH pattern of the target cell.

A method and apparatus are provided for updating a sequence hopping (SH) pattern of an uplink channel during handover from a current cell having a current SH pattern. At least one downlink channel of each neighbor cell of the current cell is monitored. Information indicative of the monitored downlink channels of the neighbor cells is transmitted to the current cell. Prior to receiving a handover command from the current cell a target cell from among the neighbor cells is anticipated and a common downlink channel of the anticipated target cell is monitored to determine information representative of a target SH pattern of the target cell.

A multi-carrier cellular wireless network (400) employs base stations (404) that transmit two different groups of pilot subcarriers: (1) cell-specific pilot subcarriers, which are used by a receiver to extract information unique to each individual cell (402), and (2) common pilots subcarriers, which are designed to possess a set of characteristics common to all the base stations (404) of the system. The design criteria and transmission formats of the cell-specific and common pilot subcarriers are specified to enable a receiver to perform different system functions. The methods and processes can be extended to other systems, such as those with multiple antennas in an individual sector and those where some subcarriers bear common network/system information.