Abstract: Precoder weights employed at a base station which coordinates with other base stations to form a super-cell are determined by: (a) determining an initial downlink precoding matrix at the base station for a mobile station serviced by the base station in the super-cell; (b) revising a downlink receiver matrix associated with the mobile station based on the initial downlink precoding matrix; (c) transforming the downlink receiver matrix to an uplink precoder matrix associated with the mobile station; (d) revising an uplink receiver matrix associated with each base station in uplink communication with the mobile station based on the uplink precoder matrix associated with the mobile station; and (e) revising the initial downlink precoding matrix by transforming the uplink receiver matrix to a revised downlink precoding matrix. Steps (b), (c), (d) and (e) are repeated for a particular number of iterations to determine a final downlink precoding matrix for the mobile station.

Abstract: Diversity arrays of antenna elements and phased arrays of antenna elements can be used to produce omni-directional transmissions. Communication signaling is produced based on a desired communication signal that is to be transmitted omni-directionally. In response to the communication signaling, the antenna elements cooperate to effect approximately omni-directional antenna transmission of the desired communication signal.

Abstract: A method for determining antenna weights for use in transmitting data from a plurality of base stations to a user device is disclosed. The antenna weights are determined using an input covariance matrix (S), and the input covariance matrix is determined subject to a predetermined power constraint and a predetermined, non-zero interference constraint.

Abstract: In a distributed antenna system that includes a plurality of transmitters and a controller, a method, performed by the controller, may be characterized by performing dirty-paper coding on downlink transmissions to users based on an order of the users, calculating beamforming vectors to provide that each of the downlink transmissions associated with each of the users does not interfere with other users, and maximizing, based on the calculated beamforming vectors, a data rate subject to a power constraint of the distributed antenna system.

Abstract: Inter-CoMP cell interference is reduced by “extending” at least one CoMP cell to include UEs served by a neighboring CoMP cell in the extended CoMP cell's transmission calculations, so as to minimize interference to the UEs served by other CoMP cells. Each UE in a border sub-cell identifies neighboring CoMP cells from which it receives interference in excess of a threshold value, and includes the interfering CoMP cells in a close-neighbor set. The close-neighbor set is transmitted to the UE's serving CoMP cell controller. When downlink transmissions are scheduled to the target UE, the controller notifies the neighboring CoMP cells in the close-neighbor set, identifying the target UE. Those CoMP cells then use information about the channel conditions from their transmit antennas to the target UE receive antennas to compute transmissions to UEs they serve, with the constraint that interference to the target UE is below a predetermined level.

Abstract: The invention relates to a repeater arrangement for amplifying a communication link between a base station and user equipment, wherein the communication link comprises an uplink and a downlink utilizing frequencies within a coherence bandwidth. The repeater arrangement comprises: a first antenna for communication with the base station; a second antenna for communication with the user equipment; an amplifying device operatively connected to the first antenna and to the second antenna for conveying and amplifying communication signals between the first antenna and the second antenna, the amplifying device comprising a first signal path for the uplink and a second signal path for the downlink, the first and second signal paths having equal electrical length, in order to affect said communication signal identically in both uplink and downlink, providing same phase and amplitude characteristics to said communication signal.

Abstract: A mobile communication system network node (NN) that serves user equipments (UEs) has fewer orthogonal reference signals (RSs) than a maximum number of UE antenna ports (APs) that can be served by the NN. A channel quality of a channel between the AP and the network node is ascertained for each of the APs. Whenever a number of APs of UEs served by the NN exceeds the number of RSs, all RSs are allocated to a subset of all of the APs by means of an allocation process such that: each RS is allocated to only one of the APs; each AP has no more than one RS allocated to it; and allocation decisions are a function of the channel qualities of the respective APs such that the higher the channel quality, the higher priority the corresponding AP is given as a candidate for receiving an RS allocation.

Abstract: A receiver and a method are described herein for reducing an amount of channel state information related to a transmit channel correlation matrix ?TX that is feedback to a transmitter. In addition, to a transmitter and a method are described herein for reconstructing the transmit channel correlation matrix ?TX using the reduced channel state feedback information received from the receiver.

Abstract: An apparatus for estimating a channel response associated with a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) system includes an antenna that receives multiple pilot symbols, each of the multiple pilot symbols transmitted from a different one of multiple transmit antennas of a transmitter in the MIMO system. The apparatus further includes a channel estimator that determines spatial, time and frequency correlations of channels of the MIMO system among the multiple transmit antennas when estimating a channel response associated with the MIMO system based on multiple ones of the received plurality of pilot symbols.

Abstract: The required bitrate for reporting channel state information from a network transceiver to the network is dramatically reduced, while maintaining fidelity of channel estimates, by exploiting prior channel estimates and the time correlation of channel response. For a selected set of sub-carriers, the transceiver estimates channel frequency response from pilot signals. The transceiver also predicts the frequency response for each selected sub-carrier, by multiplying a state vector comprising prior frequency response estimate and a coefficient vector comprising linear predictive coefficients. The predicted frequency response is subtracted from the estimated frequency response, and the prediction error is quantized and transmitted to the network. The network maintains a corresponding state vector and predictive coefficient vector, and also predicts a frequency response for each selected sub-carrier.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for channel estimation when the amplitude of a received signal is hard-limited. A channel estimator computes amplitude estimates for the received signal based on the phase samples of the received signal and previous channel estimates. The amplitude estimates may comprise the expected values of the amplitude given the phase samples and the initial channel estimates. The channel estimator then computes revised channel estimates based on the amplitude estimates and the phase samples. The process may be performed iteratively to refine the channel estimates during each iteration.

Abstract: An apparatus and method operable to enable the use of synchronization (SCH) and broadcast channel (BCH) signals with a bandwidth (BW) equal to the minimum possible BW for the system, for example 1.25 MHz. The present invention increases the speed of the initial cell search. In addition, the repetition of signals in the frequency domain makes it possible to perform a faster cell detection in the event a system/mobile terminal/UE is using a larger BW. When the present invention is used in a high BW system, a mobile terminal/UE is operable to determine whether to perform a cell search on a low or high BW to get sufficient cell detection performance.

Abstract: A Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) cell controller performs network-centric link adaptation for User Equipment (UE) in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell controller receives at least infrequent channel estimates from a UE in the CoMP cell, from which it estimates downlink channel and thermal noise at the UE. The CoMP cell controller is aware of the desired signal to be received at the UE, and the intra-CoMP cell interference to the UE caused by transmissions to other UEs in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell receives from the UE reports of inter-CoMP cell interference caused by transmissions by other CoMP cells. Based on the downlink channel quality, the desired signal, the intra-CoMP cell interference, the inter-CoMP cell interference, and the thermal noise, the CoMP cell controller performs link adaptation by selecting modulation and coding schemes, and other transmission parameters, for an upcoming transmission duration (such as a TTI).

Abstract: The amount of multi-antenna signals to be transmitted over the backhaul in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system from the central processor (CP) to each base station is reduced. Embodiments of the present invention exploit characteristics of the underlying signal structure, and distribute some baseband processing functionalities—such as channel coding and the application of the multi-user precoding—from the CP to the remote base stations. Additionally, in some embodiments the non-precoded parts of multi-antenna signals are broadcast from the CP to all base stations in the CoMP system, to further reduce the burden on backhaul communications. In one embodiment, the backhaul network is a Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON).

Abstract: Techniques for reducing the number of bits needed to specify the best precoding vector for each mobile station in a wireless communication network that employs multi-point transmission are disclosed. An exemplary method begins with the estimation of path loss between a mobile station and each of a plurality of geographically separated transmitter sites, each transmitter site having at least one transmitter antenna. Based on the estimated path losses, one of a plurality of pre-determined subsets (codebooks) of a pre-determined set of antenna precoding vectors is selected. A group index identifying the selected subset is then transmitted to the mobile station. Subsequently, a vector index is received from the mobile station, the vector index corresponding to a precoding vector in the selected subset, and data is transmitted to the mobile station, using the precoding vector applied to the transmitter antennas at the plurality of transmitter sites.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of generating mutually orthogonal reference signals for different user terminals in and OFDM system that span different but overlapping subcarriers. The subcarriers allocated to the user terminals are divided into a plurality of non-overlapping subcarrier blocks. Each user terminal is then allocated one or more subcarrier blocks. For each subcarrier block, a user terminal is assigned a reference signal comprising a base reference sequence and a linear phase rotation. To ensure mutual orthogonality among all user terminals, user terminals allocated the same subcarrier block use the same base reference sequence with different linear phase rotations.

Abstract: A UE in a wireless communication network transmits succinct, direct channel state information to the network, enabling coordinated multipoint calculations such as joint processing, without substantially increasing uplink overhead. The UE receives and processes reference symbols over a set of non-uniformly spaced sub-carriers, selected according to a scheme synchronized to the network. The frequency response for each selected sub-carrier is estimated conventionally, and the results quantized and transmitted to the network on an uplink control channel. The non-uniform sub-carrier selection may be synchronized to the network in a variety of ways.

Abstract: Teachings presented herein offer reduced computational complexity for symbol sequence estimation, and also provide for the generation of soft bit values representing the reliability of that estimation. A demodulator is configured to generate these soft bit values by identifying a candidate value for each symbol in the sequence which is more likely than at least one other in a defined set of candidate values. Based on the candidate value identified for each symbol, the demodulator forms a reduced set of candidate values for the symbol by selecting as many additional candidate values from the defined set as are needed to have complementary bit values for each bit value in that identified candidate value. The demodulator calculates soft bit values for the symbol sequence based on a sequence estimation process whose state space for each symbol is constrained to the corresponding reduced set.

Abstract: A Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) cell controller performs network-centric link adaptation for User Equipment (UE) in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell controller receives at least infrequent channel estimates from a UE in the CoMP cell, from which it estimates downlink channel and thermal noise at the UE. The CoMP cell controller is aware of the desired signal to be received at the UE, and the intra-CoMP cell interference to the UE caused by transmissions to other UEs in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell receives from the UE reports of inter-CoMP cell interference caused by transmissions by other CoMP cells. Based on the downlink channel quality, the desired signal, the intra-CoMP cell interference, the inter-CoMP cell interference, and the thermal noise, the CoMP cell controller performs link adaptation by selecting modulation and coding schemes, and other transmission parameters, for an upcoming transmission duration (such as a TTI).

Abstract: A mobile communication system network node (NN) that serves user equipments (UEs) has fewer orthogonal reference signals (RSs) than a maximum number of UE antenna ports (APs) that can be served by the NN. A channel quality of a channel between the AP and the network node is ascertained for each of the APs. Whenever a number of APs of UEs served by the NN exceeds the number of RSs, all RSs are allocated to a subset of all of the APs by means of an allocation process such that: each RS is allocated to only one of the APs; each AP has no more than one RS allocated to it; and allocation decisions are a function of the channel qualities of the respective APs such that the higher the channel quality, the higher priority the corresponding AP is given as a candidate for receiving an RS allocation.