Abstract: A method includes operating a network access node to determine, in cooperation with at least one other network access node, a coordinated scheduling granularity having a plurality of physical resource blocks; and signaling an indication of the determined coordinated scheduling granularity to at least one mobile device served by the network access node for use in enhancing estimation at a receiver of the mobile device, such as when estimating an interference covariance matrix. Apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed, as are mobile device methods and apparatus for receiving and using the signaling.

Abstract: A system to obtain an enhanced-transport format combination (E-TFC) for transmitting a scheduling information (SI) in a soft handoff (SHO) to a serving enhanced Data Channel (E-DCH) cell in a heterogeneous Network (HetNet). The system comprises receiving an E-TFC selection power backoff (ESPB) value from an active macro-cell, the active macro-cell being the service E-DCH cell; determining the E-TFC based on an indicated power of a serving grant minus the received ESPB value and a set of E-TFC power offset value received from the active macro cell, if an MAC-e/i data PDU to be transmitted is multiplexed with the SI; otherwise, determining the E-TFC based on the indicated power of the serving grant and the set of E-TFC power offset value; and transmitting the MAC-e/i PDU to the active macro cell using the indicated power of the serving grant and an enhanced dedicated channel selected based on the determined E-TFC.

Abstract: To control UE assumption of interference there is a controller module to control a plurality of transmission points, each constituted by a set of at least one transmit antenna, to transmit data to another device in a coordinated transmission from at least a subset of the plurality of transmission points. The controller module is configured to allocate, to each resource linked to the subset of the plurality of transmission points, an interference contribution parameter that is indicative of an expected interference contribution originating from said transmission point, and to inform said another device of those resources to which the subset of the plurality of transmission points is linked, together with the respective interference contribution parameter allocated to each resource. Another device reports feedback based on signals which are scaled with the respective interference contribution parameter.

Abstract: To control UE assumption of interference there is a controller module to control a plurality of transmission points, each constituted by a set of at least one transmit antenna, to transmit data to another device in a coordinated transmission from at least a subset of the plurality of transmission points. The controller module is configured to allocate, to each resource linked to the subset of the plurality of transmission points, an interference contribution parameter that is indicative of an expected interference contribution originating from said transmission point, and to inform said another device of those resources to which the subset of the plurality of transmission points is linked, together with the respective interference contribution parameter allocated to each resource. Another device reports feedback based on signals which are scaled with the respective interference contribution parameter.

Abstract: A system to obtain an enhanced-transport format combination (E-TFC) for transmitting a scheduling information (SI) in a soft handoff (SHO) to a serving enhanced Data Channel (E-DCH) cell in a heterogeneous Network (HetNet). The system comprises receiving an E-TFC selection power backoff (ESPB) value from an active macro-cell, the active macro-cell being the service E-DCH cell; determining the E-TFC based on an indicated power of a serving grant minus the received ESPB value and a set of E-TFC power offset value received from the active macro cell, if an MAC-e/i data PDU to be transmitted is multiplexed with the SI; otherwise, determining the E-TFC based on the indicated power of the serving grant and the set of E-TFC power offset value; and transmitting the MAC-e/i PDU to the active macro cell using the indicated power of the serving grant and an enhanced dedicated channel selected based on the determined E-TFC.

Abstract: Inter-cell interference coordination of multiple transmission ranks can be accomplished by various methods and apparatuses. For example, a method can include defining indexing of resources for which a base station will restrict a maximum rank for transmission. The method can also include informing a neighboring base station of the first base station about the resources for which the base station will restrict the maximum rank of transmission.

Abstract: To control UE assumption of interference there is a controller module to control a plurality of transmission points, each constituted by a set of at least one transmit antenna, to transmit data to another device in a coordinated transmission from at least a subset of the plurality of transmission points. The controller module is configured to allocate, to each resource linked to the subset of the plurality of transmission points, an interference contribution parameter that is indicative of an expected interference contribution originating from said transmission point, and to inform said another device of those resources to which the subset of the plurality of transmission points is linked, together with the respective interference contribution parameter allocated to each resource. Another device reports feedback based on signals which are scaled with the respective interference contribution parameter.

Abstract: Inter-cell interference coordination of multiple transmission ranks can be accomplished by various methods and apparatuses. For example, a method can include defining indexing of resources for which a base station will restrict a maximum rank for transmission. The method can also include informing a neighboring base station of the first base station about the resources for which the base station will restrict the maximum rank of transmission.

Abstract: A method includes operating a network access node to determine, in cooperation with at least one other network access node, a coordinated scheduling granularity having a plurality of physical resource blocks; and signaling an indication of the determined coordinated scheduling granularity to at least one mobile device served by the network access node for use in enhancing estimation at a receiver of the mobile device, such as when estimating an interference covariance matrix. Apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed, as are mobile device methods and apparatus for receiving and using the signaling.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for jointly encoding bits containing information about an existing modulation technique or an existing antenna transmission technique in order to extend signaling to include new information about an additional modulation technique or the use of an additional antenna transmission technique without having to increase the number of bits transmitted in the signaling; and conveying the new information in unused combinations of the encoded bits. The signaling may take the form of a high speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) that forms part of a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). In some embodiments, the existing modulation technique may include quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), or some combination thereof, and the additional modulation technique may include 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64QAM).

Abstract: A method includes generating automatic repeat request feedback information at a first device in response to a downlink transmission from a second device; encoding the feedback information to comprise an indication of a number of streams received in the downlink transmission and transmitting encoded feedback information to the second device. Another method includes transmitting a multi-stream downlink transmission from a first device to a second device; receiving encoded hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information from the second device; decoding the received hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information at the first device; and determining from the encoding of the hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information at least a number of streams that were actually received by the device from the downlink transmission. A wireless link between the devices can be a 2×2 MIMO link.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a modulator configured to modulate a plurality of data sequences, where individual ones of the plurality of data sequences correspond to individual ones of a plurality of user equipment; a transmitter configured for operation with a plurality of antennas and further configured to simultaneously transmit the modulated data sequences to the plurality of user equipment; and a receiver configured to receive one of an acknowledgment or a non-acknowledgment indication from individual ones of the plurality of user equipment indicating success or failure, respectively, of an individual one of the user equipment correctly receiving a corresponding transmitted data sequence.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for jointly encoding bits containing information about an existing modulation technique or an existing antenna transmission technique in order to extend signaling to include new information about an additional modulation technique or the use of an additional antenna transmission technique without having to increase the number of bits transmitted in the signaling; and conveying the new information in unused combinations of the encoded bits. The signaling may take the form of a high speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) that forms part of a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). In some embodiments, the existing modulation technique may include quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), or some combination thereof, and the additional modulation technique may include 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64QAM).

Abstract: A method includes generating automatic repeat request feedback information at a first device in response to a downlink transmission from a second device; encoding the feedback information to comprise an indication of a number of streams received in the downlink transmission and transmitting encoded feedback information to the second device. Another method includes transmitting a multi-stream downlink transmission from a first device to a second device; receiving encoded hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information from the second device; decoding the received hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information at the first device; and determining from the encoding of the hybrid automatic repeat request feedback information at least a number of streams that were actually received by the device from the downlink transmission. A wireless link between the devices can be a 2×2 MIMO link.

Abstract: A transceiver and a method of controlling data transmission in a radio system, the method comprising transmitting packets from a first transceiver to a second transceiver, each packet having a given quality of service value. The first transceiver selects a stream of two or more available streams realized with a plurality of transmit antenna paths for the transmission of each packet on the basis of the quality of service value of each packet and the channel quality information of each available stream.

Abstract: An approach for determining antenna weights in a multiple antenna communication system is provided. The approach jointly optimizes the transmitter weights and the receiver filter. A filter of a receiver (e.g., Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE)) is optimized using initial weight values of the transmit antennas. The cost function, which is a mean-squared of a difference between a transmitted signal and an estimated signal, is then modified according to the optimized receiver filter. A transmit filter is then optimized according to the modified cost function. The above approach advantageously can obtain antenna weights when the condition of separability of paths does not exist.

Abstract: A receiver in a mobile communication network, including a receiving unit to receive signals transmitted in at least two channels, a channel estimator to form a channel estimate for each transmit channel, at least two linear filters, wherein each linear filter is configured to filter a signal received on a channel, each filter having a filter coefficient defining the filtering, a calculating unit to form at least one combining weight by convolving a channel estimate and a filter coefficient, a combiner, which is configured to form at least two filter-specific weighted signals by weighting a filtered signal with at least one combining weight; and the combiner is configured to combine at least two filter-specific weighted signals to provide an estimate for the transmitted signal.

Abstract: A method for use in channel coding for cellular communication in case of a transmitter using a plurality of antennas to convey respective low-rate data streams each of which is modulated by a plurality of spreading codes so as to provide a respective plurality of code channels—some of which are “reused” (i.e. used by more than one of the antennas)—and which in combination convey a single (high-rate) data stream including both systematic bits (i.e. information bits, as opposed to redundancy or parity bits added to protect the information bits), and also redundancy bits, the method including a step of allocating the systematic and redundancy bits to the plurality of code channels so as to take into account differences in the quality of the different physical channels by using a bit allocation rule that allocates more systematic bits to non-reused code channels than to reused code channels.

Abstract: A method and system for estimating the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of the common pilot channel (CPICH) in a W-CDMA receiver. The SINR estimation is carried out after chip level filtering and then the despreading of the CPICH channel. In the case of space-time transmit diversity, a virtual space-time decoding is used on the CPICH channel in order to mimic data channel data channel space-time transformation. The estimated SINR can be used for a User Equipment to report its channel quality indicator to a Node B.