Inter-cell interference coordination

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to apparatuses, methods and computer readable storage medium for inter-cell interference (ICI) coordination. In a method, a request for measurements of neighbouring cells is transmitted to a first apparatus (UE) by a second apparatus (serving base station). A measurement result of the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells are received from the first apparatus by the second apparatus. At least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells is sent to at least one third apparatus (neighbouring base station) by the second apparatus based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells. The indication may include assistance information.

Description

FIELDS

[0001] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to apparatuses, methods and computer readable storage medium of inter-cell interference (ICI) coordination. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the fifth generation (5G)-Advanced and the sixth generation (6G) standardization, there is a mixture of services with different quality of service (QoS) coexisting in the network. Some studies of 5G-Advanced networks with the coexistence of eXtend Reality (XR) and Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) traffic find that the co-channel inter-cell interference from eMBB transmissions can severely limit the XR capacity of the system. In addition, in the worst case, the system is prevented from being able to fulfill the XR QoS requirements. SUMMARY

[0003] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: receive, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements of at least one of: receive, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; and transmit, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

[0004] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; receive, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; and send, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0005] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a third apparatus. The third apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third apparatus at least to: receive, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell; receive, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; and perform, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

[0006] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a first apparatus. The method comprises: receiving, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; and transmitting, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

[0007] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a second apparatus. The method comprises: transmitting, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; and sending, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0008] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a third apparatus. The method comprises: receiving, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell; receiving, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; and performing, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

[0009] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

[0010] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; means for receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; and means for sending, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result 2 and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0011] In a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a third apparatus. The third apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; and means for performing, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

[0012] In a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform the method according to the fourth, fifth or sixth aspect.

[0013] It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling diagram for ICI coordination according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an example process of ICI coordination in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a third apparatus according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 7 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0022] FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0023] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0025] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0026] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0027] It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second” and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0028] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0029] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step has to be performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

[0030] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof.

[0031] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable): (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and (ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and (c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0032] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0033] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5G-Advance, the sixth generation (6G) and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0034] As used herein, the term “network device” or “network access device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

[0035] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehiclemounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0036] As used herein, the term “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0037] As mentioned above, co-channel inter-cell interference from eMBB transmissions can severely limit the XR capacity of the system. It is found from some studies that applying some kind of resource restrictions on the eMBB transmissions may help improve the overall XR performance, but how to do that in a way to only enforce such restrictions when needed, and without unnecessarily harming the eMBB performance remains an open issue.

[0038] The 3GPP standard, such as 3GPP TR 38.835, on XR in the RAN include XR traffic models and QoS definitions. In short, the considered XR video models include semi-deterministic arrival of video frames with 60 fps, where each video frame is subject to time-jitters of e.g., ±4 ms. The average data rate of downlink (DL) XR is typically 30Mbps or 45Mbps, depending on the video resolution. For an XR user to be satisfied, 99% of the video frames must be correctly received with the packet delay budget (PDB). The PDB the RAN part for DL XR traffic is typically on the order of 10-15 ms.

[0039] Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) techniques have been studied in the literature extensively. Some of the most relevant references are as follows.

[0040] In a cellular system with different traffic types, having potentially very different QoS targets, typically the traffic of highest priority, or highest urgency, is scheduled first, followed by the next priority traffic. It is expected that in the practical implementation of XR services, the XR users will co-exist with other traffic-type services in an existing network. Therefore, the available radio resources will be smaller than the XR-only evaluations performed in Rei-17 and 18 studies, e.g., in 3GPP TR 38.835 and 3GPP TR 38.838, and thus the XR capacity will be less than the reported numbers in the technical reports. In a system with XR and best-effort eMBB, XR traffic (if present) is therefore scheduled first and followed by eMBB on the remaining resources. In some studies mentioned above, it was found that in a system with only XR traffic, 7 the physical resource block (PRB) utilization is typically only 40%-60% due to the bursty nature of the XR traffic and its strict QoS targets. When adding full buffer eMBB traffic, the PRB utilization rises to 100%, resulting in significantly more inter-cell interference, causing a decline in the XR performance, where several of the XR UEs start to be unsatisfied, equivalent to an XR capacity loss.

[0041] Example embodiments of the present disclosure propose an ICI coordination solution. In this solution, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells is transmitted to a first apparatus (e.g., a victim UE) by a second apparatus (e.g., a serving cell of the victim UE). A measurement result of the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells are received from the first apparatus by the second apparatus. At least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells is sent to at least one third apparatus (e.g., an aggressor cell) by the second apparatus.

[0042] In this way, the problem that how to better control inter-cell interference and protect high-priority QoS users (e.g., XR) may be addressed, while only inflicting tolerable performance losses on lower-priority UEs (e.g., best effort eMBB).

[0043] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The communication environment 100 includes a first apparatus 110 which may operate as a terminal device such as a UE. The first apparatus 110 may communicate with a second apparatus 120 which may operate as a network device such as agNB. The second apparatus 120 may manage a cell 125 which serves the first apparatus 110.

[0044] The communication environment 100 further include a third apparatus 130 which may operate as a network device such as a gNB. The third apparatus 130 may manage a cell 135 in which a fourth apparatus 140 and a fifth apparatus 150 may communicate with the third apparatus 130. The cell 135 may interfere the communication of the first apparatus 110 and thus the cell 135 may be referred to as “aggressor cell” and the first apparatus 110 may be referred to as “victim UE”.

[0045] In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110, the fourth apparatus 140 and the fifth apparatus 150 have different QoS priorities. In an example, the priority of the fourth apparatus 140 is higher than the first apparatus 110 and the priority of the fifth apparatus 150 is lower than the first apparatus 110.

[0046] It is to be understood that the numbers of devices are illustrated in FIG. 1 only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable numbers of terminal devices and network devices for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] In some example embodiments, a link from the second apparatus 120 or the third apparatus 130 to the first apparatus 110 may be referred to as a DL. and a link from the first apparatus 110 to the second apparatus 120 or the third apparatus 130 may be referred to as an uplink (UL). In DL, the second apparatus 120 or the third apparatus 130 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the first apparatus 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver). In UL, the first apparatus 110 is a TX device (or a transmitter) and the second apparatus 120 or the third apparatus 130 is an RX device (or a receiver).

[0048] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a terminal device, the second apparatus 120 operating as a network device and the third apparatus 130 operating as a network device. However, in some example embodiments, operations described with respect to a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other devices, and operations described with respect to a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other devices.

[0049] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G), the sixth generation (6G), and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0050] Some example implementations will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 8.

[0051] FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling diagram 200 for ICI coordination according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The signaling diagram 200 involves the first apparatus 110, the second apparatus 120 and the third apparatus 130 in FIG. 1. For purpose of illustration, the signaling diagram 200 will be described with respect to FIG. 1.

[0052] For purpose of discussion, some example embodiments are described where the first apparatus 110 is implemented as a terminal device such as a UE, the second apparatus 120 is implemented as a network device such as a gNB and the third apparatus 130 is implemented as a network device such as a gNB.

[0053] In operation, the second apparatus 120 transmits (210), to a first apparatus 110, a request for one or more measurements. The first apparatus 110 receives (215) the request.

[0054] In some example embodiments, the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

[0055] In some example embodiments, before transmitting the request, the second apparatus 120 may monitor at least one performance metric of the first apparatus 110. QoS monitoring at the gNB (as an example of the first apparatus 110) determines users in risk of not being able to meet their minimum QoS targets. Each gNB continuously monitors the performance of its UEs. For example, if an XR UE u is found to be close to its minimum QoS requirement, it is subject to further investigation.

[0056] In some example embodiments, the request for the one or more measurements may be transmitted to the first apparatus 110 based on a comparison of the at least one performance metric and at least one threshold. In an example, as the primary QoS requirement for the XR users is the 99-percentile of the experienced XR frame delay, the gNB monitors if the 99-percentile of the UE’s experienced frame delay (as an example of the performance metric) exceeds a predefined delay threshold, DTH, where this threshold may be set to 90% of the Packet Delay Budget. It is to be understood that QoS requirements may come from the 5Q1 or the newly standardized PDU set QoS attributes in Rel-18 for XR use cases.

[0057] In some example embodiments, at least one performance metric may be related to a quality of service (QoS) requirement of the first apparatus 110. In an example, the performance metric may include the UE’s experienced frame delay.

[0058] After receiving the request, the first apparatus 110 transmits (220), to the second apparatus 120, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells of the one or more cells. The second apparatus 120 receives (225) the measurement result and the set of identifiers.

[0059] In some example embodiments, for the XR UEs (as an example of the first apparatus 110) that are found to be close to their minimum QoS requirements, it is evaluated whether this is caused by IC1 problems. This may be done by requesting Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR, as an example of the measurement of received signal quality) and interference measurements (e.g., high dominant interference ratio (DIR)) of the subject matter XR UE. UEs with low SINR and high DIR are more likely to be suffering from ICE The DIR is a quantity that can be used to roughly estimate what would be the SINR increase if the dominant interfering cell would be muted to no longer cause interference. Hence, if an XR UE with lower experienced QoS and an average SINR below STH and DIR above DIR™, it is labeled as a victim UE, triggering IC1C actions in an attempt to improve its performance.

[0060] In some example embodiments, the measurement result includes at least one of: average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells, a total received interference from the one or more cells, an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, or an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells. The second apparatus 120 may request measurements from the UE of its N strongest interfering cells, total experienced interference, and average experienced post detection SINR for scheduled Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDSCH) receptions. Specifically, each victim XR UE may be instructed by its serving gNB (also referred to as the second apparatus 120) to gather information about the DIR of its aggressor cells and their corresponding cell IDs. To accomplish this, the UE u performs measurements to assess the received interference from its neighboring cells 1^,Vk e {1,...,6}. The UE u reports the average experience SINR (as an example of the average received signal quality of the one or more cells), the top N (e.g., N = 3) strongest cell interference measurements ( / „ >> / „), and their corresponding cell IDs (x, y, z) together with the total received interference (llotal = £vk / k, as an example of the total received interference from the one or more cells). It is to be understood that the number of N may be randomly selected and the N may be set to 3, 5, 7, etc. Alternatively, or in addition, an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells which exceeds a threshold may be included in the measurement result. In an example, the threshold may be used to control the number of N to select appropriate number of strongest cell interference measurements to be reported.

[0061] In some example embodiments, a measured value of the interference may be filtered. Embodiments of the present disclosure further propose that the individual physical (PHY) layer interference measurement values are subject to filtering by the UE. As this is the case for other radio resource management (RRM) measurements, it is assumed that those will be subject to layer-3 IIR filtering with a certain filtering coefficient.

[0062] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may transmit, to the first apparatus 110, a configuration of the one or more measurements. The first apparatus 110 may-receive the configuration.

[0063] In some example embodiments, the configuration of the one or more measurements may indicates at least one of: a periodic measurement report, an event-based measurement report, or a filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference. The gNB may configure the UE with such interference measurements via a new Radio Resource Control (RRC) Interference Measurement Object, also including the filter coefficient of the Layer-3 filtering. The new RRC Interference Measurement Object may also include some options for periodic and / or event-based reports of Interference Measurement values back to the network.

[0064] After receiving the measurement result and the set of identifiers, the second apparatus 120 sends (230), to at least one third apparatus 130, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells. The third apparatus 130 receives (235) the indication.

[0065] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may determine an interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0066] In some example embodiments, the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell may be determined by dividing an interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell by a total received interference from the one or more cells minus the interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell plus background noise. In an example, the gNB serving the victim UEs calculates the DIR of UE u using the following expression: DIR* = (1)

[0067] In Equation (1), / „otal represents the total received interference, represents the interference from the first dominant interferer cell x for UE u and Nu represents the background noise.

[0068] Alternatively, or in addition, the DIR of the top two aggressors is expressed as follows: XV $ + % (2) / Total _ ix _ fy । m

[0069] In Equation (2), represents the interference from the second dominant interferer cell y for UE u. Similarly, the DIR of the top three aggressors is expressed as follows: [MoW _ (3) / Total _jX_ jy _ jZ . nr lu Ju Ju ‘u^^u

[0070] In Equation (3), represents the interference from the third dominant interferer cell z for UE u. It is to be understood that the above equations may be extend to any number of dominant interferer cells.

[0071] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may determine, based on the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell, that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient to increase received signal quality of the first apparatus to be greater than or equal to a threshold, and the at least one indication is sent (230) to the at least one third apparatus based on the determining that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient. The serving gNB may determine restrictions for possible aggressors to bring the UE back to conditions with acceptable SINR and ICI so it can fulfill its minimum QoS requirements. In there is the first aggressor cell, given the information provided by the UE, the gNB may estimate if enforcing Tx restrictions (e.g. muting) for the dominant aggressor cell(s) is sufficient to bring the SINR above STH. Utilizing that the SINR improvement from e.g. muting is proportional to the DIR. If that is not the case, the second or third strongest aggressor cells are involved until the SINR is estimated to be above S™.

[0072] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may determine that the first apparatus 110 is to be scheduled and the at least one indication may be sent (230) to the at least one third apparatus 130 after determining that the first apparatus 110 is to be scheduled. Inter-gNB signaling to aggressor gNBs may request restrictions for certain transmission time intervals (TTIs) where the victim UE is anticipated to be scheduled in the future, incl. conveying QoS metrics for victim UE that allows the aggressor gNB to prioritize against the importance of the UEs that it is serving. It also signals attributes such a “restriction type”, prohibit timer, and noninteger restriction patterns as needed to be aligned with XR traffic. When the gNB has identified one, or more, of its XR UEs as victims, it informs the aggressor cell(s) to enable the transmission restrictions (e.g. mute) at the times when the victim UE will be scheduled. For the current XR traffic models, where the XR frame arrives every 16.66 ms on average, and typically requires 2-4 TTIs for scheduling (including potential HARQ retransmissions), this means muting of only 2-4 TTIs for even 33 TTIs, for example, in the case where the sub-carrier spacing equals 30kHz.

[0073] The second apparatus 120 may send (237) assistance information of the transmission restriction to the at least one third apparatus 130. The third apparatus 130 receives (240) the assistance information. In some example embodiments, the assistance information may be included in the at least one indication sent (230) to the at least one third apparatus 130. In some other example embodiments, the assistance information may be sent via additional signaling or message.

[0074] In some example embodiments, the assistance information may include at least one of: a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction, a type of the transmission restriction, a percentage of resources to be muted, a rank restriction, or a priority of the first apparatus.

[0075] Conveying such information to the aggressor cell may happen via the Xn inter-gNB interface, using the Xn application protocol. The new Xn message may include all, or a subset of the following attributes. The attributes may include the time-domain pattern where the aggressor cell may apply restrictions to lower its generated interference. This may be expressed as a none-integer time-pattern, where the aggressor cell is asked to reduce its interference during time-windows of X=4 ms every Y= 16.66 ms (as would be relevant for a troubled XR UE that is typically having data for transmission coming every 16.66 ms, but subject to some time-jitter of 4ms). The values of X and Y could be configurations that are part of the Xn message (i.e. new IEs). The attributes may include the type of restrictions that the aggressor cell is asked to enforce could be enumerated as “full muting of its PRBs”, “partial muting of at least M% of its PRBs” (as an example of the percentage of resources to be muted), or “restrictions to use only Rank-1 transmissions” (as an example of the rank restriction). The use of rank restriction is a mild restriction, but it is still useful as standard UEs with minimum mean square error-interference rejection combining (MMSE-IRC) receivers will be able to better suppress interference with Rank-1 as compared to higher rank transmissions. The attributes may further include the QoS class of the troubled victim UE: The aggressor cell to know the QoS class of the troubled XR user that it takes actions to protect. This will be useful in case the aggressor cell is serving UEs with higher QoS classes / priorities, such that it doesn’t sacrifice the performance of such UEs to protect “less important” UEs in other cells.

[0076] In some example embodiments, the at least one indication may be sent to the at least one third apparatus after a timer is expired. The validity of the transmission restrictions for the aggressor cell may be configured to follow a prohibit timer.

[0077] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may restart the timer after the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus 130. For example, each gNB then resets this timer whenever it signals a neighbor cell (aggressor cell) to apply some restrictions, and if the timer is not zero, the gNB is not allowed to send a new signal of the same type to the neighbor cells. This timer is provisioned to forbid gNBs from sending multiple Xn messages when the victim UEs’ conditions do not improve (or take longer to improve).

[0078] After receiving the assistance information, the third apparatus 130 performs (245), based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus. In some example embodiments, the assistance information may be included in the at least one indication received (240) from the second apparatus 120. In some other example embodiments, the assistance information may be received from the second apparatus 120 via additional signaling or message.

[0079] In some example embodiments, the at least one fifth apparatus may have at least one priority lower than a priority of the first apparatus. In an example, the fifth apparatus may be implemented as the fifth apparatus 150 in FIG. 1. The aggressor cell which is managed by the third apparatus 130 receives the transmission restriction message (e.g. muting) request will thereafter obey the requests for all its users with lower QoS priority than what is indicated in the message.

[0080] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus 130 may schedule at least one fourth apparatus having at least one priority higher than a priority of the first apparatus. In an example, the fourth apparatus may be implemented as the fourth apparatus 140 in FIG. 1. The aggressor cell is still allowed to schedule its own high-priority XR UEs as needed to fulfill its QoS target. In this way, transmission restrictions may be determined based on priorities and thus UEs with higher priorities scheduled by the aggressor cells may be guaranteed.

[0081] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus 130 may send, to the second apparatus 120, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with the at least one fifth apparatus.

[0082] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 receive, from a third apparatus of the at least one third apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with at least one fourth apparatus served in the at least one dominant interfering cell. In an example, it may happen that the aggressor receives the aforementioned Xn message to apply restrictions on time intervals where it is scheduling other critical user(s) with the same, or higher priority. If that is the case, the aggressor gNB, or the gNB serving the troubled UE, may coordinate to adjust the burst arrival time (BAT) offset of the traffic to avoid that they collide in time. In this way, the collision between the transmission associated with UEs with higher priorities may be avoided.

[0083] An example ICI coordination process will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 3.

[0084] FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an example process 300 of ICI coordination in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a serving gNB of victim UE 310 operates as an example implementation of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1, a potential victim UE 320 operates as an example implementation of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 and aggressor cells 330 operates as an example implementation of cells managed by the third apparatus 130 in FIG. 1.

[0085] As shown in FIG. 3, the process 300 shows an example where transmission restrictions at the aggressor cell(s) are in the form of muting. It is assumed that a distributed proactive ICIC scheme that runs in each gNB. The serving cell monitors the QoS for its served XR users, and when the QoS requirements for a UE are about to be violated (e.g., example could be that PDB is very close to expiry), actions are taken to determine if the situation can be improved via ICIC actions. To do this, the serving cell requests SINR and interference measurements from the XR UE, which experiences low QoS, and uses those to determine if the ICI is the cause of the problems. When this is the case, the gNB will determine which cell, or cells, are causing the ICI problem (denotes the aggressor cell, or aggressor cells). If the XR user in question is found to be an ICI victim UE, its corresponding aggressor cell(s) is then asked to enforce other restrictions (muting being one example) on its transmission resources of lower priority UEs at the times when the victim UE will be scheduled.

[0086] Specifically, in the process 300, at 332, the serving gNB of victim UE 310 monitors outage packet latency of XR UEs and marks those at risk if their latency exceeds Dth (as an example of the predefined delay threshold).

[0087] At 334, the serving gNB of victim UE 310 requests for SINR and interference measurements. At 336, the potential victim UE 320 identifies / „, , (i.e., the top three aggressors) and / uOtal (i.e., the total received interference).

[0088] At 338, the potential victim UE 320 reports SINR, / *, I™3' and cell IDs of x, y, z to serving gNB of victim UE 310. At 340, the serving gNB of victim UE 310 marks the UE as victim if SINR being less than STH and DIR being greater than DIR™.

[0089] At 342, the serving gNB of victim UE 310 decides which aggressor cells to mute. At 544, the serving gNB of victim UE 310 sends muting request to the aggressor cells 330 for a certain TTI.

[0090] At 346, the victim UE is being scheduled by the serving gNB of victim UE 310. At 348, the aggressor cells 330 mute transmissions of TTIs when possible.

[0091] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of an example method 400 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 400 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0092] At block 410, the first apparatus 110 receives, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells.

[0093] At block 420, the first apparatus 110 transmits, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

[0094] In some example embodiments, the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

[0095] In some example embodiments, the measurement result includes at least one of: average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells, a total received interference from the one or more cells, an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, or an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0096] In some example embodiments, a measured value of the interference is filtered.

[0097] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

[0098] In some example embodiments, the configuration of the one or more measurements indicates at least one of: a periodic measurement report, an event-based measurement report, or a filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference.

[0099] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method 500 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0100] At block 510, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells.

[0101] At block 520, the second apparatus 120 receives, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

[0102] At block 530, the second apparatus 120 sends, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0103] In some example embodiments, the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: monitoring at least one performance metric of the first apparatus, wherein the request for the one or more measurements is transmitted to the first apparatus based on a comparison of the at least one performance metric and at least one threshold.

[0105] In some example embodiments, the at least one performance metric is related to a quality of service requirement of the first apparatus.

[0106] In some example embodiments, the measurement result includes at least one of: average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells, a total received interference from the one or more cells, an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, or an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0107] In some example embodiments, a measured value of the interference is filtered.

[0108] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

[0109] In some example embodiments, the configuration of the one or more measurements indicates at least one of: a periodic measurement report, an event-based measurement report, or a filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference.

[0110] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: determining an interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells; and determining, based on the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell, that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient to increase received signal quality of the first apparatus to be greater than or equal to a threshold, wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus based on the determining that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient.

[0111] In some example embodiments, the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell is determined by dividing an interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell by a total received interference from the one or more cells minus the interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell plus background noise.

[0112] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: determining that the first apparatus is to be scheduled, wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after determining that the first apparatus is to be scheduled.

[0113] In some example embodiments, the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after a timer is expired.

[0114] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: restarting the timer after the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus.

[0115] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: sending assistance information of the transmission restriction to the at least one third apparatus.

[0116] In some example embodiments, the assistance information includes at least one of: a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction, a type of the transmission restriction, a percentage of resources to be muted, a rank restriction, or a priority of the first apparatus.

[0117] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: receiving, from a third apparatus of the at least one third apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with at least one fourth apparatus served in the at least one dominant interfering cell.

[0118] FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at a third apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the third apparatus 130 in FIG. 1.

[0119] At block 610, the third apparatus 130 receives, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell.

[0120] At block 620, the third apparatus 130 receives, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction.

[0121] At block 630, the third apparatus 130 performs, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the assistance information further includes at least one of: a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction, a type of the transmission restriction, a percentage of resources to be muted, a rank restriction, or a priority of a first apparatus.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the at least one fifth apparatus has at least one priority lower than a priority of the first apparatus.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: scheduling at least one fourth apparatus having at least one priority higher than a priority of the first apparatus.

[0125] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: sending, to the second apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with the at least one fifth apparatus.

[0126] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing the method 400 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 400. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, a measurement result of the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells of the one or more cells.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the measurement result includes at least one of: average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells, a total received interference from the one or more cells, an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, or an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0130] In some example embodiments, a measured value of the interference is filtered.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the configuration of the one or more measurements indicates at least one of: a periodic measurement report, an event-based measurement report, or a filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 400 or the first apparatus 110. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the first apparatus.

[0134] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing the method 500 (for example, the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0135] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; means for receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement result of the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; and means for sending, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

[0137] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for monitoring at least one performance metric of the first apparatus, wherein the request for the one or more measurements is transmitted to the first apparatus based on a comparison of the at least one performance metric and at least one threshold.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the at least one performance metric is related to a quality of service requirement of the first apparatus.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the measurement result includes at least one of: average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells, a total received interference from the one or more cells, an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, or an interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells.

[0140] In some example embodiments, a measured value of the interference is filtered.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

[0142] In some example embodiments, the configuration of the one or more measurements indicates at least one of: a periodic measurement report, an event-based measurement report, or a filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference.

[0143] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining an interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells; and means for determining, based on the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell, that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient to increase received signal quality of the first apparatus to be greater than or equal to a threshold, wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus based on the determining that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient.

[0144] In some example embodiments, the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell is determined by dividing an interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell by a total received interference from the one or more cells minus the interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell plus background noise.

[0145] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining that the first apparatus is to be scheduled, wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after determining that the first apparatus is to be scheduled.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after a timer is expired.

[0147] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for restarting the timer after the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus.

[0148] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for sending assistance information of the transmission restriction to the at least one third apparatus.

[0149] In some example embodiments, the assistance information includes at least one of: a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction, a type of the transmission restriction, a percentage of resources to be muted, a rank restriction, or a priority of the first apparatus.

[0150] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from a third apparatus of the at least one third apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with at least one fourth apparatus served in the at least one dominant interfering cell.

[0151] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 500 or the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the second apparatus.

[0152] In some example embodiments, a third apparatus capable of performing the method 600 (for example, the third apparatus 130 in FIG. I) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the third apparatus 130 in FIG. 1.

[0153] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; and means for performing, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

[0154] In some example embodiments, the assistance information further includes at least one of: a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction, a type of the transmission restriction, a percentage of resources to be muted, a rank restriction, or a priority of a first apparatus.

[0155] In some example embodiments, the at least one fifth apparatus has at least one priority lower than a priority of the first apparatus.

[0156] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus further comprises: mean for scheduling at least one fourth apparatus having at least one priority higher than a priority of the first apparatus.

[0157] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus further comprises: means for sending, to the second apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with the at least one fifth apparatus.

[0158] In some example embodiments, the third apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 600 or the third apparatus 130. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the third apparatus.

[0159] FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110, the second apparatus 120 or the third apparatus 130 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more communication modules 740 coupled to the processor 710.

[0160] The communication module 740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 740 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 740 may include at least one antenna.

[0161] The processor 710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 700 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0162] The memory 720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0163] A computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 710. The instructions of the program 730 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 730 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 724. The processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 730 into the RAM 722.

[0164] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 730 so that the device 700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 6. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0165] In some example embodiments, the program 730 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0166] FIG. 8 shows an example of the computer readable medium 800 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 800 has the program 730 stored thereon.

[0167] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as nonlimiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0168] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computerexecutable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0169] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0170] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0171] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory' (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0172] Further, although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In 5 certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, although several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be 10 implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0173] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in 15 the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A first apparatus comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to:receive, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; andtransmit, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

2. The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request indicates a request for identifying the set of dominant interfering cells from the one or more cells.

3. The first apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the measurement result includes at least one of:average received signal quality of the set of dominate interfering cells,a total received interference from the one or more cells,an average experienced signal and interference to noise ratio from a serving cell of the one or more cells, oran interference from each cell of the set of dominant interfering cells.

4. The first apparatus of claim 3, wherein a measured value of the interference is filtered.

5. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the first apparatus to:receive, from the second apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

6. The first apparatus of claim 5, wherein the configuration of the one or more measurements indicates at least one of:a periodic measurement report,an event-based measurement report, ora filter coefficient for filtering a measured value of the interference.

7. A second apparatus comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to:transmit, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells;receive, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; andsend, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

8. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:monitor at least one performance metric of the first apparatus,wherein the request for the one or more measurements is transmitted to the first apparatus based on a comparison of the at least one performance metric and at least one threshold.

9. The second apparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one performance metric is related to a quality of service requirement of the first apparatus.

10. The second apparatus of any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:transmit, to the first apparatus, a configuration of the one or more measurements.

11. The second apparatus of any of claims 7 to 10, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor cause the second apparatus to:determine an interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells; anddetermine, based on the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell, that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient to increase received signal quality of the first apparatus to be greater than or equal to a threshold,wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus based on the determining that the transmission restriction for the at least one dominant interfering cell is sufficient.

12. The second apparatus of claim 11, wherein the interference ratio of the at least one dominant interfering cell is determined by dividing an interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell by a total received interference from the one or more cells minus the interference from the at least one dominant interfering cell plus background noise.

13. The second apparatus of claim 11 or 12, wherein the at least one memory’ and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:determine that the first apparatus is to be scheduled,wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after determining that the first apparatus is to be scheduled.

14. The second apparatus of any of claims 7 to 13, wherein the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus after a timer is expired.

15. The second apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:restart the timer after the at least one indication is sent to the at least one third apparatus.

16. The second apparatus of any of claims 7 to 15, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:send assistance information of the transmission restriction to the at least one third apparatus.

17. The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein the assistance information includes at least one of:a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction,a type of the transmission restriction,a percentage of resources to be muted,a rank restriction, ora priority of the first apparatus.

18. The second apparatus of any of claims 7 to 17, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the second apparatus to:receive, from a third apparatus of the at least one third apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with at least one fourth apparatus served in the at least one dominant interfering cell.

19. A third apparatus comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory’ storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third apparatus at least to:receive, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell;receive, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; andperform, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

20. The third apparatus of claim 19, wherein the assistance information further includes at least one of:a time-domain pattern of the transmission restriction,a type of the transmission restriction,a percentage of resources to be muted,a rank restriction, ora priority of a first apparatus.

21. The third apparatus of claim 19 or 20, wherein the at least one fifth apparatus has at least one priority lower than a priority of the first apparatus.

22. The third apparatus of any of claims 19 to 21, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the third apparatus to:schedule at least one fourth apparatus having at least one priority higher than a priority of the first apparatus.

23. The third apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one memory' and the at least one processor further cause the third apparatus to:send, to the second apparatus, a request for adjusting time of a transmission associated with the first apparatus, to avoid a collision between the transmission associated with the first apparatus and at least one transmission associated with the at least one fifth apparatus.

24. A method comprising:receiving, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one ormore cells; andtransmitting, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

25. A method comprising:transmitting, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells;receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; andsending, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

26. A method comprising:receiving, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell;receiving, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; andperforming, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

27. A first apparatus comprising:means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells; andmeans for transmitting, to the second apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells.

28. A second apparatus comprising:means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a request for one or more measurements for one or more cells;means for receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement result based on the one or more measurements and a set of identifiers of a set of dominant interfering cells among the one or more cells; andmeans for sending, to at least one third apparatus, at least one indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one dominant interfering cell in the set of dominant interfering cells, based on the measurement result and the set of identifiers of the set of dominant interfering cells.

29. A third apparatus comprising:means for receiving, from a second apparatus, an indication that a transmission restriction is enabled for at least one cell;means for receiving, from the second apparatus, assistance information of the transmission restriction; andmeans for performing, based on the assistance information, the transmission restriction for at least one fifth apparatus.

30. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 24, the method of claim 25 or the method of claim 26.34

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