Method and apparatus for cancelling neighbor cell interference signals in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access system

A method and apparatus are provided where a neighbor cell interference signal is canceled upon receiving a signal transmitted from a serving base station (BS) in a receiver of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system. The interference signals are detected from signals received from neighbor BSs and a serving BS. The strength of the detected interference signals is measures, and a determination is made whether the measured strength is higher than a threshold value. A list of neighbor BSs satisfying the determination result is reordered, and interference signals in order of the reordered neighbor BSs are selected and detected.. An interference/noise variance for the detected interference signal is calculated and normalized. The normalized interference signal is decoded and regenerated, and the regenerated interference signal is subtracted from the received signal.