Blind identification of the uplink scrambling code index of a WCDMA transmission and application to femtocell networks

Interference between macro and femtocells is an important issue for the development of WCDMA femtocell networks. More specifically, the uplink signal of a macro User Equipment may generate an unacceptable level of interference at the femto Base Station. To avoid this situation, interference mitigation techniques could be implemented. All the proposed techniques require the knowledge of the uplink scrambling code index of the interferer. Unfortunately, if the femto BS is in a closed access mode, there are no signalling links with the surrounding macro BSs. The femto BS has to estimate blindly this scrambling code index. An algorithm which performs a blind identification of the uplink scrambling code index of a WCDMA transmission is proposed in this article. This gives the possibility to implement interference cancelation algorithm at the femto BS.