Patent attributes
Methods are disclosed creating sector-carriers with unequal pairing of uplink and downlink bandwidths. In one embodiment a method includes determining, at a SON controller, a downlink required rate and a corresponding estimated downlink bandwidth required; determining, at the SON controller, an uplink required rate and a corresponding estimated uplink bandwidth required; determining, at the SON controller, an aggregate bandwidth of spectrum suitable for downlink operation; determining, at the SON controller, an aggregate bandwidth of spectrum suitable for uplink operation; and determining from the downlink required rate; the corresponding estimated downlink bandwidth required; the uplink required rate; the corresponding estimated uplink bandwidth required; the aggregate bandwidth of spectrum suitable for downlink operation; and the aggregate bandwidth of spectrum suitable for uplink operation, at least one sector-carrier configuration wherein the uplink data rate is different than the downlink data rate.