Method and Apparatus for Interference Mitigation Utilizing Antenna Pattern Adjustments

1. A method, comprising: obtaining, by a system comprising a processor, interference information according to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in a plurality of resource blocks in a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services to a plurality of communication devices and having a plurality of base stations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the base stations, and wherein the interference information is provided to the system from the plurality of base stations; correlating, by the system, the interference information to generate correlated information; detecting, by the system, a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information; determining, by the system, interferer locations for each of the plurality of interferers; predicting, by the system and in accordance with the correlated information, recurrent interference caused by a detected interferer of the plurality of interferers; and adjusting, by the system, a first antenna pattern of a first antenna of a first base station based on the interferer locations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the interference information is from the plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in the plurality of resource blocks in the radio frequency spectrum of the wireless communication system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device of the plurality of communication devices to change from utilizing the first base station to utilizing a second base station for the communication services.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is performed without the first base station filtering the signal interference.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second base station experiences a decrease in the signal interference, and further comprising: determining traffic loads associated with the first and second base stations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first base station and an increase in the traffic load at the second base station.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising: adjusting, by the system, a second antenna pattern of a second antenna of the second base station based on the interferer locations, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna of the first base station overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna of the second base station.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising: receiving, by the system, device location information from each of the plurality of communication devices, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the device location information.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising: identifying, by the system, a profile for each of the plurality of interferers that describes characteristics of each of the plurality of interferers; and determining, by the system, a first temporal recurrence of a first interferer of the plurality of interferers according to the interference information associated with the first interferer, wherein the profile of each of the plurality of interferers is generated by analyzing the signal interference associated with each of the plurality of interferers according to spectral shape, amplitude, phase, time of occurrence, frequency of occurrence, geographic location of occurrence, network traffic levels at a time of detection of the signal interference, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the interferer locations comprises: determining temporal recurrences of the plurality of interferers; estimating a location of each of the plurality of interferers based on device location information received from the plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold; and generating an interference map of the plurality of interferers according to the temporal recurrences and the estimating of the location of each of the plurality of interferers.

10. A system, comprising: a memory to store instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising: obtaining interference information provided to the system according to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in a plurality of segments of a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services and having a plurality of antennas at a plurality of antenna locations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the plurality of antenna locations; generating an interference map for the plurality of interferers according to the interference information; predicting, in accordance with the interference map, recurrent interference caused by a detected interferer of the plurality of interferers; and adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at a first location of the plurality of antenna locations based on the interference map, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device to change from utilizing the first antenna to utilizing a second antenna at a second location of the plurality of antenna locations for accessing the communication services.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first location comprises a first base station, wherein the second location comprises a second base station, and wherein each segment of the plurality of segments conforms to a long term evolution protocol.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the obtaining of the interference information comprises receiving the interference information from a plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information in the plurality of segments of the radio frequency spectrum, and wherein the operations further comprise: correlating the interference information of the plurality of communication devices to generate correlated information; and detecting the plurality of interferers according to the correlated information, wherein the generating of the interference map is based on the correlated information.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining traffic loads associated with the first and second locations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first location and an increase in the traffic load at the second location.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise: adjusting a second antenna pattern of the second antenna based on the interference map, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining temporal recurrences of the plurality of interferers; and estimating a location of each of the plurality of interferers based on device location information received from a plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold, wherein the generating of the interference map is based on the temporal recurrences and the estimating of the location of each of the plurality of interferers.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving interference information from each of a plurality of communication devices detecting interference information according to an adaptive threshold in a plurality of segments in a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services and having a plurality of antennas at a plurality of antenna locations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the plurality of antenna locations; correlating the interference information of the plurality of communication devices to generate correlated information; identifying a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information; approximating a location of each of the plurality of interferers according to location information provided by the plurality of communication devices; predicting, in accordance with the correlated information, recurrent interference caused by an identified interferer of the plurality of interferers; and adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at a first location based on the approximating of the location of the plurality of interferers, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device to change from utilizing the first antenna to utilizing a second antenna at a second location for accessing the communication services.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise: adjusting a second antenna pattern of the second antenna based on the approximating of the location of the plurality of interferers, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining traffic loads associated with the first and second locations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first location and an increase in the traffic load at the second location.