The present disclosure relates to apparatus, systems, and methods for analyzing characteristics of entities of interest. In particular, the present disclosure provides a mechanism for analyzing information about entities of interest and for rating or scoring the entities of interest based on the analyzed information. The rating or the score of an entity of interest can sometimes be referred to as a placerank value of an entity of interest.

A processing device includes an acquirer, a definition unit, and a determiner. The acquirera acquires, when a signal is transmitted from each of a plurality of base station devices while changing an azimuth angle, interference power of a signal received by a target station for each combination of a base station device and an azimuth angle. The definition unit defines an azimuth angle range in which interference power equal to or greater than a threshold is included as a restricted area. The determiner determines a direction of a center of a beam of each of the plurality of base station devices so as to prevent the center of the beam of each of the plurality of base station devices from falling within the restricted area.

Multi-band signaling is described for reducing signaling overhead in an apparatus and method for communications within a mesh network. The communications involve using two different beacon signals on two different communication channels. Peer beacons are sent using directional millimeter-wave (mmW) communications to provide time synchronization and resource management information to maintain existing links among one or more neighboring peer stations. A separate network discovery beacon is sent over a sub-6 GHz communication channel, to provide mesh network profile information that identifies the mesh network to aid network discovery for wireless communication stations wanting to join the mesh network.

A method for combining two radio access network (RAN) cells into a virtual cell is disclosed, comprising: at a coordinating node, assigning a virtual cell identifier for a virtual cell, assigning a plurality of base stations to the virtual cell, and scheduling resources for a user equipment (UE) at each base station in the virtual cell; and at a base station of the plurality of base stations, constructing a signal containing two cell identifiers, the two cell identifiers being the virtual cell identifier and a physical cell identifier of the base station, and sending the signal to the UE, thereby improving performance for the UE at a cell edge of the first base station and of the second base station.

A method for combining two radio access network (RAN) cells into a virtual cell is disclosed, comprising: at a coordinating node, assigning a virtual cell identifier for a virtual cell, assigning a plurality of base stations to the virtual cell, and scheduling resources for a user equipment (UE) at each base station in the virtual cell; and at a base station of the plurality of base stations, constructing a signal containing two cell identifiers, the two cell identifiers being the virtual cell identifier and a physical cell identifier of the base station, and sending the signal to the UE, thereby improving performance for the UE at a cell edge of the first base station and of the second base station.

There is provided a management apparatus configured to allocate a plurality of zones capable of identifying a three-dimensional space in common among a plurality of mobile communication carrier networks to a flight airspace allowing a plurality of mobile terminals to be flown, the plurality of mobile terminals being configured to respectively perform wireless communication with the plurality of mobile communication carrier networks, and configured to transmit information on allocation of the plurality of zones to a mobile communication network respectively managed by the plurality of mobile communication carriers.

A radio base station capable of reducing the impact of interference and improving the efficiency of the use of radio resources even when different DL/UL configurations are employed between neighboring transmitting/receiving points is disclosed. The radio base station can communicate with user terminals via time division duplex and is able to change and control DL/UL configurations, has a subframe type determining section that classifies subframes into fixed subframes or flexible subframes, in accordance with the relationship between the DL/UL configurations that are employed in the radio base station and the DL/UL configurations that are employed in other radio base stations, and a frequency allocation control section that applies mutually different frequency allocation methods to the fixed subframes and the flexible subframes.

A radio base station capable of reducing the impact of interference and improving the efficiency of the use of radio resources even when different DL/UL configurations are employed between neighboring transmitting/receiving points is disclosed. The radio base station can communicate with user terminals via time division duplex and is able to change and control DL/UL configurations, has a subframe type determining section that classifies subframes into fixed subframes or flexible subframes, in accordance with the relationship between the DL/UL configurations that are employed in the radio base station and the DL/UL configurations that are employed in other radio base stations, and a frequency allocation control section that applies mutually different frequency allocation methods to the fixed subframes and the flexible subframes.

Systems and methods for managing and/or improving interference in cells may be provided. For example, in embodiments, a partial-band Almost Blank Subframe (PB-ABS) subframe and/or a spatial Almost Blank Subframe (SABS) may be provided and/or used for coordinating communication with in networks with smaller and larger cells (e.g. pico or macro cells). For example, a PB-ABS may provide a dimension (e.g. frequency) that may be used to define a region and/or particular resources (e.g. resource blocks) reserved for pico cell operations or transmissions and a region or other resources (e.g. not those reserved for pico cell operations) available for macro cell operations or transmissions. Additionally, based on beam parameters (e.g. associated with cell partitioning), SABS may offer an additional dimension (e.g. spatial) that may be used to prevent transmission in a particular spatial direction.

Multi-band signaling is described for reducing signaling overhead in an apparatus and method for communications within a mesh network. The communications involve using two different beacon signals on two different communication channels. Peer beacons are sent using directional millimeter-wave (mmW) communications to provide time synchronization and resource management information to maintain existing links among one or more neighboring peer stations. A separate network discovery beacon is sent over a sub-6 GHz communication channel, to provide mesh network profile information that identifies the mesh network to aid network discovery for wireless communication stations wanting to join the mesh network.