HK1149672B - Wireless communication channel blanking - Google Patents

Description

Wireless communication channel blanking

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application entitled "controlshannel BLANKING," serial No. 60/988,356, filed on day 11, 15 of 2007. The entire contents of the above application are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to interference on a wireless communication channel.

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. A typical wireless communication system may be a multiple-access system capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power …). Examples of such multiple-access systems may include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. Additionally, these systems may comply with specifications such as the third generation partnership project (3GPP) and the like.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device may communicate with one or more base stations via forward and reverse link transmissions. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from base stations to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to base stations. Moreover, communications between mobile devices and base stations can be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input (MIMO) systems, and so forth. In addition, mobile devices can communicate with other mobile devices (and/or base stations with other base stations) in peer-to-peer wireless network configurations.

MIMO systems typically employ multiple pairs (N)_TSub) transmitting antenna and multi-pair (N)_RAnd) a receive antenna for data transmission. In one example, the antennas can be associated with both base stations and mobile devices to enable bi-directional communication between the devices on a wireless network. However, such systems can have associated interference since multiple antennas for multiple transmitters and multiple receivers can communicate simultaneously. In most cases, past solutions to this interference include: the interference level when the mobile device is connected to the base station with the highest signal quality is calculated and taken into account. However, with the advent of other technologies and functions, the priority of a connection point may beNot based on signal quality.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more embodiments in order to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In accordance with one or more embodiments and corresponding disclosure thereof, various aspects are described in connection with facilitating pruning of communication channels of one or more transmitting devices to enable different transmitting devices to communicate with a receiver, wherein the pruning transmitting devices generally interfere with the different transmitting devices and the receiver. Based on this, the receiving device may communicate with the transmitting device, which is not necessarily the transmitting device with the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Thus, there may be diversity in the access points with which the receivers communicate.

According to related aspects, a method for mitigating dominant interference in wireless network communications is provided. The method may include: interference on one or more control channels used by a plurality of communication devices is determined. The method may further comprise: selecting a portion of the one or more control channels on which to clip to reduce the interference; clipping at least a portion of power on a selected portion of the one or more control channels.

Another aspect relates to a wireless communications apparatus that can comprise at least one processor configured to perform blanking on one or more control channels of different communication links in a multiple access wireless network based upon received information related to dominant interference to mitigate the dominant interference. The wireless communications apparatus can also include a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

Another aspect relates to a wireless communications apparatus that performs clipping on a control channel to mitigate interference thereon. The wireless communication apparatus may include: means for determining a dominant interference of the wireless communication apparatus to different communications between different devices. The wireless communication apparatus may further include: means for determining one or more control channels on which to clip to improve quality of the disparate communication; means for blanking on the one or more control channels.

Another aspect relates to a computer program product that may have a computer-readable medium comprising: code for causing at least one computer to determine interference on one or more control channels used by a plurality of communication devices. The computer-readable medium may further include: code for causing the at least one computer to select a portion of the one or more control channels over which to clip to reduce the interference; code for causing the at least one computer to clip at least a portion of power on the selected portion of the one or more control channels.

According to another aspect, an apparatus in a wireless communication system may comprise: a processor configured to determine dominant interference of the wireless communication apparatus to different communications between different devices. The processor may be further configured to: determining one or more control channels on which to clip to improve the quality of the different communications; blanking on the one or more control channels. Additionally, the apparatus may further include a memory coupled to the processor.

According to another aspect, a method for requesting blanking on a control channel in a wireless communication network is provided. The method may include: interference by a dominant interferer to communications with a device on one or more control channels is detected. The method may further comprise: requesting the dominant interferer to clip on a subset of the one or more control channels; transmitting control data to the device on the one or more control channels.

Another aspect relates to a wireless communications apparatus. The wireless communication apparatus may include: at least one processor configured to request a dominant interferer to clip on one or more control channels and transmit control data to a receiving device over the control channels. The wireless communications apparatus can also include a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

Another aspect relates to a wireless communications apparatus that requests blanking on one or more interfered portions of bandwidth. The wireless communication apparatus may include: means for detecting interference caused by a dominant interferer over one or more portions of bandwidth. The wireless communication apparatus may further include: means for requesting the dominant interferer to pare down on the wide portion of band; means for transmitting data over the portion of bandwidth.

Another aspect relates to a computer program product that may have a computer-readable medium comprising: code for causing at least one computer to detect interference by a dominant interferer to communication with a device on one or more control channels; code for causing the at least one computer to request the dominant interferer to blank on a subset of the one or more control channels. The computer-readable medium may further include: code for causing the at least one computer to transmit control data to the device on the one or more control channels.

According to another aspect, an apparatus may be provided in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising a processor configured to: detecting interference caused by a dominant interferer over one or more portions of bandwidth; requesting the dominant interferer to clip on the portion of bandwidth; transmitting data over the wide portion of the band. Additionally, the apparatus may include a memory coupled to the processor.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more embodiments comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the one or more embodiments. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various embodiments may be employed and the described embodiments are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an illustration of a wireless communication system in accordance with various aspects set forth herein.

Fig. 2 is an illustration of an example communications apparatus for employment within a wireless communications environment.

Fig. 3 is an illustration of an example wireless communication system that implements blanking (blank) and transmission on additional portions of bandwidth that are subject to interference.

Fig. 4 is a diagram of example bandwidths of devices interfering with each other.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an example methodology that facilitates blanking on one or more portions of bandwidth.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of an example methodology that facilitates requesting blanking on one or more portions of bandwidth.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example mobile device that facilitates requesting blanking on one or more portions of bandwidth.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an example system that facilitates blanking on one or more portions of bandwidth.

Fig. 9 is an illustration of an example wireless network environment that can be employed in conjunction with the various systems and methods described herein.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an example system that effectuates blanking on one or more bandwidth portions.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an example system that requests blanking on a bandwidth portion and transmits data on the bandwidth portion.

Detailed Description

Various embodiments are now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of one or more embodiments. It may be evident, however, that such embodiment(s) may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing one or more embodiments.

As used in this application, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being: a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).

Furthermore, various embodiments are described herein in connection with a mobile device. A mobile device can also be called a system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile, remote station, remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, user device, or User Equipment (UE). The mobile device may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device having wireless connection capability, a computing device, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. Furthermore, various embodiments are described herein in connection with a base station. A base station can be utilized for communicating with mobile device(s) and can also be referred to as an access point, node B, or some other terminology.

Moreover, various aspects or features described herein can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk (CD), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card, stick, key drive, etc.). In addition, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency domain multiplexing (SC-FDMA) systems, and others. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA2000, and so on. UTRA includes wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. In addition, CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. TDMA systems may implement wireless technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM). OFDMA systems may implement wireless technologies such as evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16(WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM, and so forth. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that employs E-UTRA, which uses OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "third Generation partnership project" (3 GPP). In addition, CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3GPP 2).

Referring now to fig. 1, a wireless communication system 100 is illustrated in accordance with various embodiments presented herein. System 100 comprises a base station 102, which base station 102 can comprise multiple antenna groups. For example, one antenna group can include antennas 104 and 106, another group can include antennas 108 and 110, and an additional group can include antennas 112 and 114. Two antennas are shown for each antenna group; however, more or fewer antennas may be used for each group. Base station 102 can additionally include a transmitter chain and a receiver chain, each of which can in turn comprise a plurality of components associated with signal transmission and reception (e.g., processors, modulators, multiplexers, demodulators, demultiplexers, antennas, etc.), as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

Base station 102 can communicate with one or more mobile devices (e.g., mobile device 116 and mobile device 122); however, it should be appreciated that base station 102 can communicate with substantially any number of mobile devices similar to mobile devices 116 and 122. For example, mobile devices 116 and 122 can be cellular phones, smart phones, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, global positioning systems, PDAs, and/or any other suitable device for communicating over wireless communication system 100. As depicted, mobile device 116 is in communication with antennas 112 and 114, where antennas 112 and 114 transmit information to mobile device 116 over a forward link 118 and receive information from mobile device 116 over a reverse link 120. In addition, mobile device 122 is in communication with antennas 104 and 106, where antennas 104 and 106 transmit information to mobile device 122 over a forward link 124 and receive information from mobile device 122 over a reverse link 126. In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, forward link 118 can utilize a different frequency band than that used by reverse link 120, and forward link 124 can employ a different frequency band than that employed by reverse link 126, for example. Further, in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, forward link 118 and reverse link 120 can utilize a common frequency band and forward link 124 and reverse link 126 can utilize a common frequency band.

Each group of antennas and/or the area in which they are designated to communicate can be referred to as a sector of base station 102. For example, antenna groups can be designed to communicate to mobile devices in a sector of the areas covered by base station 102. In communication over forward links 118 and 124, the transmitting antennas of base station 102 can utilize beamforming to improve signal-to-noise ratio of forward links 118 and 124 for mobile devices 116 and 122. Moreover, when base station 102 utilizes beamforming to transmit to mobile devices 116 and 122 scattered randomly through an associated coverage, mobile devices in neighboring cells can be subject to less interference as compared to a base station transmitting through a single antenna to all its mobile devices. Further, mobile devices 116 and 122 can communicate directly with each other using peer-to-peer or ad hoc technologies, as shown.

According to an example, system 100 can be a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system. Moreover, system 100 can employ substantially any type of duplexing technique to divide communication channels (e.g., forward link, reverse link …), such as FDD, TDD, and the like. The communication channel may include one or more logical channels. These logical channels can be provided for transmission of control data between mobile devices 116 and 122 and base station 102 (or from mobile device 116 to mobile device 122 in a peer-to-peer configuration, for example). In one example, mobile devices 116 and 122 can transmit Channel Quality Information (CQI) to base station 102 to indicate parameters related to an assigned communication channel. For example, base station 102 can allocate other channel resources to mobile devices 116 and/or 122 based upon the CQI control data. In addition, base station 102 can transmit control data, e.g., acknowledgement information related to data received from the device, to mobile devices 116 and/or 122 over the control channel.

In one example, base station 102 can strip down a portion of the channel, meaning it can reduce the power used to transmit the channel to allow communication between different devices or base stations in the case of base station 102 being a strong interferer. Thus, a device can connect to an access point or base station based on willingness, not necessarily geographic desirability (geographic desirability) or maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, although not shown, mobile device 122 can communicate with a different base station having a lower SNR than base station 102 has; thus, base station 102 may interfere with communications because base station 102 has a better signal for mobile device 122. To enable the mobile device 122 to effectively communicate with the disparate base stations, the base station 102 can curtail transmissions on particular channels so that the mobile device 122 can communicate with the disparate base stations using the channels. It should be appreciated that the reduction need not remove all of the power from the channel, although it may be. Additionally, for example, the power removed during the clipping may be configurable and/or may depend on the particular requirements of the communication device or the measured interference level. It should be appreciated that mobile devices 116 and/or 122 can, for example, clip on a control channel for the uplink in addition to or instead of base station 102 clipping on a control channel for the downlink.

If the clipping includes reducing the power of the channel to enable a different device to communicate, the device (e.g., mobile device 116) communicating with the clipping base station 102 can still receive data on the clipped channel; however, the SNR is not as high as when regularly transmitted (e.g., the communication exhibits deep fading). Additionally, in one example, base station 102 can compensate for the clipped bandwidth by boosting power used for transmission over an undipped channel. It should be appreciated that blanking transmissions on resources is not limited to OFDMA configurations; but rather, such a configuration is shown to facilitate explanation. For example, substantially any wireless communication configuration may use the functionality described herein.

Turning to fig. 2, illustrated is a communications apparatus 200 for employment within a wireless communications environment. The communications apparatus 200 can be a base station or a portion thereof, a mobile device or a portion thereof, or substantially any communications apparatus that receives data transmitted in a wireless communication environment. The communication device 200 may include: an interference information receiver 202 that can receive information on interference caused to other communication devices by the communication apparatus 200; a bandwidth reducer 204 that can reduce over a particular portion of the communication bandwidth based at least in part on the interference-related information; a transmitter 206 that can transmit over the communication bandwidth and reduce or increase transmission power based at least in part on a reduction status of the bandwidth portion determined by the bandwidth reducer 204.

According to an example, the interference information receiver 202 can obtain information related to interference of the communication apparatus 200 with other communications between different devices. This information may be identified or inferred by the communications apparatus 200 and/or provided by one or more different devices or components. The information includes portions of bandwidth used by different devices to communicate with each other; in one example, these portions may be used for critical data, such as control data. For example, in an OFDMA wireless network configuration, the information may include the location of one or more subcarriers used by different devices in communications as control channels or other channels that are interfered by communications apparatus 200 (e.g., communications apparatus 200 may use the associated bandwidth or channel to communicate with different devices). The bandwidth reducer 204 may perform the reduction on one or more channels (or subcarriers thereof) indicated in the received information.

As described, the clipping can include removing substantially all or a portion of the transmit power used by the transmitter 206 for the channel. In another example, the received information may also include an interference level of the communication apparatus 200, such that the bandwidth reducer 204 may reduce the power used by the transmitter 206 to transmit over the reduced channel or portion of bandwidth, rather than removing all of the power, and the reduced level may correspond to the received interference level. When the channel is clipped, the different device can achieve desired communication without interference from the communication apparatus 200. It should be appreciated that the communications apparatus 200 can determine when to clip onto a channel or other bandwidth portion despite the interference information being received via the interference information receiver 202. For example, although interference information receiver 202 may receive information about a particular channel to be clipped (e.g., in an OFDMA configuration), it need not necessarily clip on all channels in every physical frame, and in fact bandwidth clipper 204 may choose to clip or not clip on only a particular physical frame and only a particular control channel. In one example, the bandwidth reducer 204 may also be used to increase the transmission power of the portion of the bandwidth where no reduction occurs; in one example, this may take into account the bandwidth lost during blanking.

According to an example, communications apparatus 200 can communicate blanking information related to a portion of bandwidth to be blanked by bandwidth reducer 204 to one or more disparate communications devices. Based on this, these devices may rely on the blanking and transmit data (e.g., control data or otherwise) over the bandwidth portion to ensure reliable communication with each other. In addition, one or more different devices may curtail the channel used by the communications apparatus 200 in a reciprocal fashion. Thus, in return, communications apparatus 200 can transmit the curtailed information along with the portion of the bandwidth that it wants the different device to curtail. It should be understood that not all of the illustrated components are required. For example, the interference information receiver 202 is optional, such that the bandwidth reducer 204 can reduce the control channels of different communication devices. In one example, for a heterogeneous deployment, bandwidth reducer 204 can reduce the control channels of lower power communication devices.

Referring now to fig. 3, illustrated is a wireless communication system 300 that can mitigate dominant interference of one or more devices by blanking on relevant portions of bandwidth. System 300 includes a base station 302 that can communicate with a number of disparate mobile devices (not shown). The mobile device 304 is communicating with the base station 318 to facilitate wireless communication services. Base station 318 can transmit information to mobile device 304 over a forward link channel; in addition, the base station 318 can receive information from the mobile device 304 over a reverse link channel. Further, system 300 can be a MIMO system. Additionally, system 300 can operate in an OFDMA wireless network (e.g., 3 GPP). Additionally, the components and functions illustrated and described below in base stations 302 and 318 can exist within each other and/or also in mobile device 304, and vice versa; for ease of explanation, the configuration shown does not include these components.

The base station 302 includes: an interference information receiver 306 that can obtain information related to interference from base station 302 to other communication devices (e.g., mobile device 304 and base station 318); a path loss estimator 308 that can be used to determine or infer an interference level of the base station 302 with respect to other devices; a channel reducer 310 that can reduce on channels used by other devices, as described above; a transmitter 312 that transmits data to other devices with which the base station 302 is communicating. In one example, the interference information receiver 306 can receive information related to communications that the base station 302 is interfering with. Additionally or alternatively, path loss estimator 308 can determine an interference level of base station 302 based at least in part on an estimated path loss between base station 302 and a device attempting to communicate across interference of base station 302 (e.g., mobile device 304). It should be appreciated that in this example, the interference information receiver 306 is not necessary, for example, as the information may be identified based on path loss estimates. Upon receiving the information, channel reducer 310 may reduce (e.g., remove a portion of the power or substantially all of the power) on the channel or channels that it is interfering on. The transmitter 312 may transmit using the allocated power to enable different devices to communicate without (or with very little) interference from the base station 302.

The mobile device 304 includes: an access selector 314 that can be used to select an access point for wireless communication; an interference measurer 316 that can determine interference from one or more different access points or transmitting devices. According to an example, the mobile device 304 can employ the access selector 314 to select a base station or other device with which to initiate wireless communication. In this example, the mobile device 304 can elect to communicate with the base station 318. This may be due to various reasons, for example: services provided, protocols used, restricted association when the mobile device 304 or its user is not authorized to connect to the base station 302 or the base station 318 (e.g., the mobile device 304 or its user is in the user's home or other area that may provide services or security that are not readily available with the base station 302). In addition, the base stations 302 and 318 can be part of a heterogeneously deployed network in which the mobile device 304, or a user thereof, can choose to connect to a lower power base station with lower path loss, but with poorer SNR, etc. For example, in some cases, it may be desirable for a terminal to be served by a low transmit power base station with lower path loss, even though the base station may have lower received power and lower SNR. This is because low power base stations may cause less interference to the network as a whole while serving mobile devices. Furthermore, multiple low power base stations may serve different users or mobile devices simultaneously, thereby enabling more efficient use of bandwidth than a high power base station serving a single user/device.

It should be appreciated that the mobile device 304 may also choose to communicate with a WiFi hotspot, a different mobile device, or substantially any other transmitting entity. Interference can occur on the communication link between the mobile device 304 and the base station 318 due to proximity and/or transmission strength of the base station 302. In one example, the interference can be measured by an interference measurer 316 and transmitted to the base station 302 for the clipping request. It should be appreciated that more than one base station may be a dominant interferer and, thus, a blanking request may be sent to substantially any number of multiple interferers.

According to an example, the base station 302 can determine that it is a dominant interferer to communications for the mobile device 304/base station 318. This can be determined, for example, by observing preamble transmissions and/or pilot transmissions of the mobile device 304; the path loss estimator 308 can use the preamble to estimate a path loss comprising a ratio of a transmit power of the preamble for the mobile device 304 and a quality of the preamble received by the base station 302. If the path loss is small (e.g., less than a specified threshold), then base station 302 may be considered a dominant interferer based in part on an indication that the path loss is worse relative to communicating with base station 318. In fact, in one example, this information may also be obtained for more certain calculations. The information can be obtained by substantially any method and/or device, including being received from the mobile device 304 (e.g., the mobile device 304 can determine path loss using a preamble transmitted by the base station 318), received from other components of the wireless communication network (e.g., the base station 318 or other network components), and so forth.

In one example, upon determining that the base station 302 is the dominant interferer, the interference information receiver 306 can receive or infer the location of the interfered channel used by the mobile device 304. In one example, the channel location may be a critical channel, such as a control channel. The communication apparatus 200 can employ a channel reducer 310 to reduce the transmit power used by the transmitter 312 for the associated channel. The clipping may include removing substantially all of the power of the transmitter 312 for a given channel and/or simply reducing the power. In this case, the clipping appears as a deep fade to the different device with which the base station 302 is communicating without adversely affecting the communication too much. Further, as part of the curtailment, the power may be reduced by varying degrees, which may be based on the path loss from the path loss estimator 308 in one example. For example, where the path loss from the base station 302 to the mobile device 304 is similar to the path loss of the base station 318 and the mobile device 304, the degree of reduction may not need to be as great as when the path loss for the base station 302 is sufficiently less than the path loss associated with the base station 318. In addition, base station 302 can boost power used for transmission during an undiminished channel. As described, it should be appreciated that the methods described herein are not limited to channels, but may be used for substantially any portion of bandwidth such that the reduction may occur with respect to the associated portion of bandwidth. Further, in one example, the portion of bandwidth that is clipped may change over a given period of time.

In another example, the blanking can be reciprocal such that where the base station 302 blanks a given channel for the mobile device 304, the mobile device 304 can blank on the channel used by the base station 302 (although some components are not shown, but can be present, as described above). Thus, the base station 302 can inform the mobile device 304 that it is blanking control channels on the downlink of the mobile device 304/base station 318 communication; the mobile device 304 can correspondingly curtail uplink control channels related to communications between the base station 302 and disparate devices. This may be desirable, for example, because path loss is similar on the uplink and downlink. It is to be appreciated that information related to control channel location can be interchanged by base station 302 and mobile device 304 (and/or base station 318), inferred from activity of the receiving device, received from different components in the wireless communication network, set to one or more configuration parameters, and/or the like.

In another example, the mobile device 304 can determine an interference level of the base station 302 on an associated channel using an interference measurer 316 and explicitly request the base station 302 to clip on the associated channel. For example, the mobile device 304 can transmit a request to the base station 302 over a dedicated control channel, data channel, and/or the like. In addition, for example, the mobile device 304 can employ other components, such as the base station 318, to send requests to the base station 302 via over-the-air transmissions to the base station 318 implemented using disparate network components, backhaul links and/or intermediate components between the base station 318 and the base station 302. In another example, base station 302 can receive information regarding control channels used by base station 318 from other mobile devices roaming in the area.

The clipping request may relate to a particular channel, a portion of bandwidth (e.g., subcarriers) within a specified time period, and so on. In one example, the blanking request may also include a repetition factor or other bandwidth measurement with respect to time, such as one or more frames or OFDM symbols. Additionally or alternatively, the mobile device 304 can transmit a request for the curtailment in various circumstances in which it desires to occur. It should be appreciated that the base station 302 need not grant the request or may grant a portion of the request. In fact, the base station 302 can also receive information regarding activity time intervals for mobile devices 304 that are not in a fully active state and can only curtail in time intervals in which the mobile devices 304 are active. Additionally, for example, the base station 302 can transmit the determined mitigation scheme to the mobile device 304 such that the mobile device 304 can advantageously use the information to ensure reliable communication with the base station 318. It should be appreciated that the curtailment information may be transmitted using one or more of the techniques described for transmitting the curtailment request. In addition, base station 302 can boost power for transmission without requesting clipping. It should be appreciated that where the base station 302 includes the components shown in the mobile device 304, the described functionality can also be implemented for uplink channels, and vice versa. Based thereon, the base station 302 can request that the mobile device 304 prune on its uplink control channel, which the mobile device 304 can grant over a portion of the subcarriers. In addition, not all of the components listed are required to implement the described functionality; as indicated above, the interference information receiver 306 is not necessary in all deployments.

Referring now to fig. 4, an example bandwidth portion of a transmitter and receiver for communicating with different devices is shown. At 402, the bandwidth portion for the transmitter TX _ a is shown, and at 404, the bandwidth portion for the receiver RX _ B is shown at substantially the same time and frequency. In one example, the portions may represent OFDM symbols having substantially the same time and frequency. The channels used by TX _ a and RX _ B for communicating with their respective different devices may be represented as substantially any subcarrier of an OFDM symbol; the subcarriers with the striations (e.g., 406 and 408) may represent the subcarriers for which clipping is desired (in one example, the subcarriers include one or more control channels), and the subcarriers with an "X" (e.g., 410 and 412) may represent the clipped subcarriers.

In one example, as described above, TX _ a is communicating with a different receiver RX _ a and RX _ B is communicating with a different transmitter TX _ B. However, as described above, TX _ a mainly interferes with RX _ B communication with TX _ B. Thus, using one or more of the techniques described above, RX _ B may request TX _ a to clip on the desired subcarriers (or channels that may be represented by multiple subcarriers), or vice versa. It should be appreciated that RX _ B and TX _ a may be reciprocally clipped on their desired subcarriers. As shown, TX _ a may request RX _ B to clip on subcarriers 406, as performed at 412; RX _ B may request TX _ a to clip on subcarrier 408, as performed at 410, and so on. Based on this, TX _ a and RX _ B can communicate with their respective different devices without interfering with each other. Additionally, as described, in one example, subcarriers that are not clipped are transmitted at a higher power to compensate for the bandwidth loss due to clipping. Further, the clipping may include reducing power or removing substantially all power from the subcarriers in accordance with the determined interference level, as described above.

Referring to fig. 5-6, methodologies relating to clipping on the interfered portion of bandwidth are illustrated. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the methodologies are shown and described as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with one or more embodiments, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with one or more embodiments.

Turning to fig. 5, illustrated is a methodology 500 that facilitates pruning across wide portions of a band to mitigate interference with communications between disparate devices. At 502, information related to dominant interference is received. For example, the information may be received by multiple devices or inferred based on multiple factors, including the transmitted preamble as described above. The information may include portions of the bandwidth over which the dominant interference occurs such that different devices cannot effectively communicate with each other. At 504, a portion of the bandwidth for blanking is determined. For example, these portions may be requested by different devices as part of the information relating to the dominant interference; the determined portions may be a subset of those requested portions. In one example, the requested portion may be specified as one or more portions (e.g., frames or OFDM symbols) per a given time period, and the determined portions may be over a subset of the time period. Additionally or alternatively, the portion used for blanking may be inferred from the dominant interference information.

At 506, a reduction factor may be determined; the clipping factor represents the degree to which power is to be removed from the clipped portion. For example, the clipping factor may indicate that substantially all power is to be removed from the bandwidth portion; alternatively, a portion of the power may be removed. In one example, as described above, information related to interference levels may be received or inferred. Using this information, the curtailment factor may be set to enable the interfered device to communicate efficiently without removing all power during curtailment. At 508, the bandwidth portion may be clipped according to the determined factor. It should be appreciated that in some cases, the clipping is accepted as a deep fade rather than no signal. Based on this, although the SNR is not as good as other transmissions, the clipped communication is still important.

Referring now to fig. 6, a methodology 600 that facilitates requesting dominant interferers to pare down on a bandwidth portion is illustrated. At 602, a dominant interferer is identified when a transmission is received. For example, communication may occur with the following access points: the access point may not be the most desirable or have the most desirable SNR in terms of geographic area compared to other access points. However, it may be desirable to communicate with the access point to use services associated therewith, for example. Thus, there is a device that generates the dominant interference to the communication (e.g., it has the best SNR or geographic desirability). At 604, a request is transmitted to the dominant interferer to clip on a particular portion of bandwidth. As described, in one example, the portions can be logical communication channels, such as one or more OFDM symbols. By requesting a cut-down, more reliable communication can be obtained over the bandwidth portion.

At 606, relevant data can be transmitted over the portion of bandwidth requested to be reduced. In one example, the related data may be data critical to effective communication, such as control data (e.g., channel quality information and/or acknowledgement data). Assuming that the request for blanking is successful and the dominant interferer has reduced power to the requested data portion, the relevant data can be transmitted without substantial interference. At 608, the portion of bandwidth requested by the dominant interferer may be reduced in return for the reduction by the dominant interferer. Based on this, the dominant interferer may also benefit from reduced interference on a particular channel or portion of bandwidth to effectively communicate with one or more devices.

It is to be appreciated that, in accordance with one or more aspects described herein, inferences can be made regarding: interference is detected by the interfered device and/or from the dominant interferer, as described. As used herein, the term to "infer" or "inference" refers generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic-that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-layer events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and stored event data come from one or several event and data sources.

According to an example, one or more of the methods given above may include: inferences are made regarding: whether it is a dominant interferer, the degree to which interference impedes communication between different devices, inferring the portion of bandwidth to be curtailed based on the activity of the interfered device, determining a curtailment factor, determining a channel over which power may be boosted to compensate for the curtailment, the likelihood of reciprocal curtailment by one or more devices, and so forth.

Fig. 7 is an illustration of a mobile device 700 that facilitates requesting blanking on portions of bandwidth that are heavily interfered and reciprocally blanking bandwidth for a dominant interferer. Mobile device 700 comprises a receiver 702 that receives a signal from, for instance, a receive antenna (not shown), performs typical actions on (e.g., filters, amplifies, downconverts, etc.) the received signal, and digitizes the conditioned signal to obtain samples. Receiver 702 can comprise a demodulator 704 that can demodulate received symbols and provide them to a processor 706 for channel estimation. Processor 706 can be a processor dedicated to analyzing information received by receiver 702 and/or generating information for transmission by a transmitter 718, a processor that controls one or more components of mobile device 700, and/or a processor that both analyzes information received by receiver 702, generates information for transmission by transmitter 718, and controls one or more components of mobile device 700.

Mobile device 700 can additionally comprise memory 708 that is operatively coupled to processor 706, and memory 708 can store data to be transmitted, received data, information related to available channels, data associated with analyzed signal and/or interference strength, information related to an assigned channel, power, rate, or the like, and any other suitable information for estimating a channel and communicating via the channel. Memory 708 can also store protocols and/or algorithms related to estimating and/or using a channel (e.g., performance based, capacity based, etc.).

It will be appreciated that the data store (e.g., memory 708) described herein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. By way of example, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory can include Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can include Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, RAM may be available in a variety of forms such as Synchronous RAM (SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 708 of the subject systems and methods is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The processor 706 can also be operatively coupled to an interference determiner 710 that can detect the presence and/or extent of interference of one or more disparate devices or access points with communication with one access point. The detected interference can prevent the mobile device 700 from efficiently transmitting certain relevant communication data, such as control data, to different devices or access points. A curtailment requestor 712 can also be operatively coupled to the processor 706 and can be employed to transmit a request to one or more interfering devices to request a curtailment on a desired portion of bandwidth of the mobile device 700 in order to transmit related communication data. If the curtailment request is satisfied, the mobile device 700 can transmit the relevant data over a bandwidth without interference from the dominant interfering device.

In addition, processor 706 can be operatively coupled to a bandwidth reducer 714, where bandwidth reducer 714 can reduce bandwidth requested by one or more disparate devices. This may occur, for example, if mobile device 700 is the dominant interferer for communication between different devices. Further, bandwidth reducer 714 can be utilized to reciprocally reduce bandwidth for a dominant interferer in order to communicate relevant data to one or more disparate devices. Mobile device 700 still further comprises a modulator 716 that modulates the signal and a transmitter 718 that transmits the signal to, for instance, a base station, another mobile device, etc. Although the interference determiner 710, the clipping requester 712, the bandwidth clipper 714, the demodulator 704, and/or the modulator 716 are shown as being separate from the processor 706, it is to be appreciated that these components may be part of the processor 706 or multiple processors (not shown).

Fig. 8 is an illustration of a system 800 that facilitates blanking on a wide portion of a band to mitigate a dominant interference generated to communications between disparate devices. System 800 includes a base station 802 (e.g., an access point, etc.) that has a receiver 810 that receives signals from one or more mobile devices 804 via a plurality of receive antennas 806 and a transmitter 824 that transmits signals to the one or more mobile devices 804 via transmit antennas 808. Receiver 810 can receive information from receive antennas 806 and is operatively associated with a demodulator 812 that demodulates received information. Demodulated symbols can be analyzed by a processor 814, which can be similar to the processor described above with respect to fig. 7, and coupled to a memory 816, the memory 816 can store information related to estimating signal (e.g., pilot) strength and/or interference strength, data to be transmitted to the mobile device 804 (or a disparate base station (not shown)), data received from the mobile device 804, and/or any other suitable information related to performing the various acts and functions described herein. Processor 814 is further coupled to an interference information receiver 818 that can receive information related to interference to communications of base station 802 and one or more devices (e.g., mobile device 804) and a channel reducer 820 that can reduce a portion of a bandwidth (e.g., one or more channels comprised of one or more subcarriers) to enable an interfered device to transmit desired data.

For example, interference information receiver 818 can determine the presence of interference by base station 802 by receiving explicit information (or a clipping request) or inferring such information, e.g., by estimating a path loss of a preamble transmitted by one or more devices (e.g., mobile device 804). Interference information receiver 818 can also receive or infer information related to particular portions of bandwidth for which interference problems are more severe than other portions of bandwidth. Using this information, channel reducer 820 can reduce transmission power over one or more channels to reduce the impact of interference on different communications between different devices (e.g., mobile device 804 and/or other devices). Channel reducer 820 may perform the reduction by at least one of removing substantially all power of transmitter 824 for a given channel or associated carrier and/or by reducing power sufficiently to enable communication between different devices. Further, while interference information receiver 818, channel reducer 820, demodulator 812, and/or modulator 822 are shown as being separate from processor 814, it is to be understood that these components can be part of processor 814 or multiple processors (not shown).

Fig. 9 illustrates an example wireless communication system 900. For simplicity, the wireless communication system 900 depicts one base station 910 and one mobile device 950. However, it is to be appreciated that system 900 can include more than one base station and/or more than one mobile device, wherein other base stations and/or mobile devices can be substantially similar or different from example base station 910 and mobile device 950 described below. Moreover, it is to be appreciated that base station 910 and/or mobile device 950 can employ the systems (fig. 1-3 and 7-8), techniques/configurations (fig. 4), and/or methods (fig. 5-6) described herein to facilitate wireless communication there between.

At base station 910, traffic data for a number of data streams can be provided from a data source 912 to a Transmit (TX) data processor 914. According to an example, each data stream can be transmitted over a respective antenna. TX data processor 914 formats, codes, and interleaves the traffic data stream based on a particular coding scheme selected for that data stream to provide coded data.

The coded data for each data stream can be multiplexed with pilot data using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) techniques. Additionally or alternatively, the pilot symbols may be Frequency Division Multiplexed (FDM), Time Division Multiplexed (TDM), or Code Division Multiplexed (CDM). Typically, the pilot data is a known data pattern that is processed in a known manner and can be used at mobile device 950 to estimate channel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data for each data stream can be modulated (e.g., symbol mapped) based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), etc.) selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The data rate, coding, and modulation for each data stream can be determined by instructions performed or provided by processor 930.

The modulation symbols for the data streams can be provided to a TX MIMO processor 920, and the modulation symbols (e.g., for OFDM) can be further processed by TX MIMO processor 920. The TXMMIMO processor 920 then forwards the N to_TA number of transmitters (TMTR)922a through 922t provide N_TA stream of modulation symbols. In various embodiments, TX MIMO processor 920 applies beamforming weights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna from which the symbol is being transmitted.

Each transmitter 922 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, and upconverts) the analog signals to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission over the MIMO channel. In addition, from N respectively_TN from transmitters 922a through 922t are transmitted by antennas 924a through 924t_TA modulated signal.

At mobile device 950, by N_REach antenna 952a through 952r receives the transmitted modulated signal and provides a received signal from each antenna 952 to a respective receiver (RCVR)954a through 954 r. Each receiver 954 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and downconverts) a respective signal, and applies the conditioned signal to a receiverThe signal is digitized to provide samples, and the samples are further processed to provide a corresponding "received" symbol stream.

RX data processor 960 from N_RA receiver 954 receives N_RA stream of symbols and a receiver processing technique based on the particular receiver_RThe symbol streams are processed to provide N_TA "detected" symbol stream. RX data processor 960 can demodulate, deinterleave, and decode each detected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream. The processing by RX data processor 960 is complementary to that performed by TX MIMO processor 920 and TX data processor 914 at base station 910.

A processor 970 can periodically determine which precoding matrix to use as discussed above. Further, processor 970 can formulate a reverse link message comprising a matrix index portion and a rank value portion.

The reverse link message may comprise various types of information regarding the communication link and/or the received data stream. The reverse link message can be processed by a TX data processor 938, modulated by a modulator 980, conditioned by transmitters 954a through 954r, and transmitted back to base station 910, where TX data processor 938 also receives traffic data for a number of data streams from a data source 936.

At base station 910, the modulated signals from mobile device 950 are received by antennas 924, conditioned by receivers 922, demodulated by a demodulator 940, and processed by a RX data processor 942 to extract the reverse link message transmitted by mobile device 950. Further, processor 930 can process the extracted message to determine which precoding matrix to use for determining the beamforming weights.

Processors 930 and 970 can direct (e.g., control, coordinate, manage, etc.) operation at base station 910 and access terminal 950, respectively. Respective processors 930 and 970 can be associated with memory 932 and 972 that store program codes and data, respectively. Processors 930 and 970 can also perform computations to derive frequency and impulse response estimates for the uplink and downlink, respectively.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units may be implemented within one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

When the embodiments are implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, program code or code segments, they can be stored in a machine-readable medium, such as a storage component. A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

For a software implementation, the techniques described herein may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in memory units and executed by processors. The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means as is known in the art.

Referring to fig. 10, illustrated is a system 1000 that effectuates blanking over one or more portions of bandwidth to mitigate dominant interference thereon. For example, system 1000 can reside at least partially within a base station, mobile device, etc. It is to be appreciated that system 1000 is represented as including functional blocks, which can be functional blocks that represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or combination thereof (e.g., firmware). System 1000 includes a logical grouping 1002 of electrical components that can act in conjunction. For instance, logical grouping 1002 can include an electrical component for determining a dominant interference of the wireless communications apparatus to disparate communications between disparate devices 1004. For example, interference may be determined by receiving information related thereto, identifying interference, and/or the like, based at least in part on measuring path loss from preambles of one or more disparate devices. In addition, the interference level may be measured to partially clip on one or more portions of the bandwidth. Moreover, logical grouping 1002 can include an electrical component for determining one or more control channels to be punctured on to improve quality of disparate communications 1006. In one example, the control channel may be defined by a number of subcarriers of one or more OFDM symbols used for communication. By clipping on the portion, the devices being interfered with can ensure a good quality transmission between each other, since the main interferer no longer creates interference on the portion. Moreover, logical grouping 1002 can include an electrical component for blanking on one or more control channels 1008. Thus, in fact, the channel may be clipped to facilitate reliable communication between the devices over the portion of the bandwidth making up the control channel. Additionally, system 1000 can include a memory 1010, memory 1010 holding instructions for performing functions associated with electrical components 1004, 1006, and 1008. While electrical components 1004, 1006, and 1008 are shown as being external to memory 1010, it is to be understood that one or more of electrical components 1004, 1006, and 1008 can exist within memory 1010.

Turning to fig. 11, illustrated is a system 1100 that requests blanking on one or more portions of bandwidth to enable undisturbed data transmission over the portions of bandwidth. System 1100 can reside within a base station, mobile device, etc., for instance. As depicted, system 1100 includes functional blocks that can represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or combination thereof (e.g., firmware). System 1100 includes a logical grouping 1102 that facilitates requesting pruning and transferring data. Logical grouping 1102 can include an electrical component for detecting interference caused by a dominant interferer over one or more portions of bandwidth 1104. For example, the interference may be detected based on SNR, control data, etc., and the bandwidth portion may be a portion used for transmission of critical data (e.g., control data). Further, logical grouping 1102 can include an electrical component for requesting blanking on the wide portion by a dominant interferer 1106. Based on this, if the request for clipping is granted (partially or completely), there will be less interference on the parts of the bandwidth, which will improve the quality of the transmission made on these parts. Further, logical grouping 1102 can include an electrical component for transmitting data over the wide portion 1108. Additionally, system 1100 can include a memory 1110 that retains instructions for executing functions associated with electrical components 1104, 1106, and 1108. While electrical components 1104, 1106, and 1108 are shown as being external to memory 1110, it is to be understood that one or more of electrical components 1104, 1106, and 1108 can exist within memory 1110.

What has been described above includes examples of one or more embodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the aforementioned embodiments, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of various embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the described embodiments are intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term "includes" is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising" as "comprising" is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

Claims (38)

1. A method for mitigating dominant interference in wireless network communications, comprising:

determining a dominant interference of the wireless communication device to different communications between different devices on one or more control channels used by the plurality of communication devices;

selecting a portion of the one or more control channels on which to clip to improve quality of the different communications;

clipping at least a portion of power on selected portions of the one or more control channels,

wherein the blanking is mutual such that if a base station blanks a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device blanks on a channel used by the base station.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: an indication of an interference level is received, the reduced partial power being related to the interference level.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an indication of interference caused on the one or more control channels used by the plurality of communication devices.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: transmitting information about a portion of bandwidth interfered by at least one of the communication devices to request blanking of the portion of bandwidth by the communication devices.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving a preamble from at least one of the communication devices, the indication of interference being received according to an inference related to estimating a path loss for the device based at least in part on the preamble.

6. The method of claim 3, receiving an indication of the interference from one or more of the plurality of communication devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving information from at least one of the communication devices regarding a subset of the one or more control channels over which blanking is desired.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting at a higher power over a different bandwidth portion to compensate for the clipping.

9. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to: determining a dominant interference of the wireless communication apparatus to different communications between different devices, determining one or more control channels on which to clip to improve quality of the different communications, clipping on the one or more control channels of the different communications in accordance with received information relating to dominant interference in order to mitigate the dominant interference, wherein the clipping is mutual such that if a base station clips a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device clips on a channel used by the base station;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

10. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9, the at least one processor further configured to: determining a reduction factor by which to reduce on the one or more control channels.

11. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 10, the at least one processor further configured to: estimating a path loss based at least in part on a preamble received from an interfered device, the curtailment factor determined based at least in part on the estimated path loss.

12. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9, the information is received from a dominant interfering device in a disparate communication requesting the blanking.

13. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 12, the at least one processor further configured to: reciprocally requesting the predominantly interfered device for channel blanking.

14. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9, the blanking is performed over a subset of the control channels of the disparate communication in a set of frames, each frame comprising a plurality of OFDM symbols.

15. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9, the at least one processor further configured to: the transmission is done with more power on the unshipped channel to compensate for the loss due to channel blanking.

16. A wireless communications apparatus that effectuates blanking on a control channel to mitigate interference thereon, comprising:

means for determining a dominant interference of the wireless communication apparatus to different communications between different devices;

means for determining one or more control channels on which to clip to improve quality of the disparate communication;

means for blanking on the one or more control channels,

wherein the blanking is mutual such that if a base station blanks a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device blanks on a channel used by the base station.

17. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, further comprising: means for determining an interference level of the wireless communication device, the level used by the means for blanking.

18. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, a control channel on which to prune is determined based at least in part on information received from at least one of the disparate devices.

19. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, the control channel repeats over one or more consecutive bandwidth frames.

20. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 19, the blanking is performed on a subset of the one or more consecutive frames of bandwidth.

21. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, further comprising: means for requesting at least one of the different devices to reciprocally curtail.

22. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor to:

determining a dominant interference of the wireless communication apparatus to different communications between different devices;

determining one or more control channels on which to clip to improve the quality of the different communications;

blanking on the one or more control channels, wherein the blanking is mutual such that if a base station blanks a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device blanks on a channel used by the base station;

a memory coupled to the processor.

23. A method for requesting blanking on a control channel in a wireless communication network, comprising:

detecting interference of a dominant interferer to different communications with different devices on one or more control channels;

requesting the dominant interferer to clip on a subset of the one or more control channels, wherein the clips are mutual such that if a base station clips a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device clips on a channel used by the base station;

transmitting control data to the device on the one or more control channels.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising: receiving an indication of a control channel to be blanked by the dominant interferer.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising: a request to blank on one or more control channels of the dominant interferer is received.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising: a blanking is performed on a portion of the requested control channel.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising: the reduction is requested by a network component.

28. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to: detecting interference of a dominant interferer to different communications with different devices on one or more control channels, requesting the dominant interferer to clip on the one or more control channels, and transmitting control data to a receiving device over the control channels, wherein the clipping is mutual such that if a base station clips a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device clips on the channel used by the base station;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

29. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 28, the at least one processor further configured to: determining one or more channels on which the dominant interferer is clipping.

30. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 28, the at least one processor further configured to: a request is received from the dominant interferer to reciprocally blank on one or more control channels thereof.

31. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 30, the at least one processor further configured to: blanking on one or more control channels of the dominant interferer in accordance with the request.

32. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 28, the at least one processor further configured to: transmitting, using the receiving device, the request for blanking to the dominant interferer.

33. A wireless communications apparatus that requests blanking on one or more interfered portions of bandwidth, comprising:

means for detecting interference caused by a dominant interferer to different communications with different devices over one or more portions of bandwidth;

means for requesting the dominant interferer to clip on the wide portion of the band, wherein the clips are mutual such that if a base station clips a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device clips on the channel used by the base station;

means for transmitting data over the portion of bandwidth.

34. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 33, further comprising: means for receiving information regarding one or more portions of bandwidth that the dominant interferer is clipping.

35. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 33, further comprising: for receiving a request from the dominant interferer related to reciprocally clipping a portion of bandwidth for the dominant interferer.

36. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 33, further comprising: means for blanking on at least a subset of the portion of bandwidth requested by the dominant interferer.

37. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 33, the request to prune is transmitted by one or more disparate devices to the dominant interferer.

38. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor to:

detecting interference caused by a dominant interferer to different communications with different devices over one or more portions of bandwidth;

requesting the dominant interferer to clip on the portion of bandwidth, wherein the clips are mutual such that if a base station clips a given channel for a mobile device, the mobile device clips on the channel used by the base station;

transmitting data over the wide portion of the band;

a memory coupled to the processor.