Methods and apparatus in a wireless communication system for transmitting and receiving user data on a carrier

Abstract

A base station is configured to transmit user data to a wireless device upon a first carrier. The base station identifies, from a set of transmission resources that is nominally allocated for transmission of user data upon the first carrier, a subset of transmission resources that is also nominally allocated for transmission of a reference or control signal either by the base station upon a second carrier or by a neighboring base station upon the first carrier. The base station selectively transmits user data to the wireless device upon the first carrier exclusive of this identified subset of transmission resources. The device in some embodiments obtains information indicating that the base station is selectively transmitting user data upon the first carrier exclusive of the subset in this way. Based on this information, the device recovers user data received upon the first carrier exclusive of the subset of transmission resources.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A base station in a wireless communication system configured to transmit user data to a wireless device upon a first carrier, the base station comprising:
 one or more interfaces configured to communicatively couple the base station to the wireless communication system, and   one or more transmitter processing circuits configured to:   identify, from a set of transmission resources nominally allocated for transmission of user data by the base station upon the first carrier, a subset of transmission resources also nominally allocated for transmission of a reference or control signal either by the base station upon a second carrier or by a neighboring base station upon the first carrier; and   selectively transmit user data to the wireless device upon the first carrier exclusive of the identified subset of transmission resources.