In Release R11 (Release 11, Release 11) of WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) of 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), multiflow transmission (Multi-Flow Transmission, MF-Tx for short in English) is supported, that is, multiple cells are allowed to simultaneously send HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access, High Speed Downlink Packet Access) data to a UE (user equipment), so as to improve edge UE throughput performance and cell downlink throughput performance. Correspondingly, the UE separately feeds back an ACK (acknowledgement) and/or a CQI (channel quality indicator) to each cell. Further, in an SF-DC (Single-Frequency Dual-Cell) scenario, the UE may feed back an HS-DPCCH (High speed dedicated physical control channel) to each cell in a joint feedback manner.
The foregoing SF-DC is introduced to a HetNet (heterogeneous network). The HetNet is formed by a macro network and a micro network, the micro network is within coverage of the macro network, and a corresponding macro cell and micro cell may simultaneously send data to a UE located in the micro cell. To avoid causing interference to the other cell when the macro cell and the micro cell simultaneously send data to the UE, the macro cell may configure some downlink subframes as ABS (almost blank subframe) subframes. In this way, a downlink power of an ABS subframe is lower than that of another subframe; therefore, when performing, in a subframe that is within same time as the ABS subframe, downlink scheduling on a UE, the micro cell receives relatively small interference. After the SF-DC is introduced, the UE feeds back an HS-DPCCH to a macro base station and a micro base station by means of joint feedback, and the macro base station and the micro base station need to independently parse the HS-DPCCH to obtain feedback information that may be provided for a base station to perform downlink scheduling.
In the foregoing scenario in which the SF-DC is applied to the HetNet, the UE is relatively close to the micro base station but relatively far from the macro base station; therefore, when the UE feeds back the HS-DPCCH, quality of a signal received by the macro base station is weaker than that received by the micro base station, thereby causing imbalance in an uplink link. To improve this situation, a power offset range of the HS-DPCCH may be increased, so that the macro base station also obtains an HS-DPCCH with better signal quality.
In the prior art, at least a following problem exists: for an ABS subframe, an HS-DPCCH corresponding to the ABS subframe is almost of no help to a macro base station; however, a power offset setting of the ABS subframe is the same as that of a non-ABS subframe. Due to a relatively large power offset of the ABS subframe, more power is consumed when a UE feeds back the HS-DPCCH corresponding to the ABS subframe, and an HS-DPCCH with a large power offset causes larger interference to uplink communication signals of both a micro cell and a macro cell.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds