DEDICATED REFERENCE SIGNAL STRUCTURES FOR SPATIAL MULTIPLEXING BEAMFORMING

• US 20100061360A1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Onggosanusi, Eko N., Dabak, Anand G., Chen, Runhua, Varadarajan, Badri
• Application Number:
  US12/557,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20100061360A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/342
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0226 sounding signals per se
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal

Abstract

A transmitter is for use with a cellular communication network and includes a beamforming generation unit configured to generate a downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal pattern. Additionally, the transmitter also includes a transmit unit configured to transmit the downlink beamforming transmission. A receiver is for use with a cellular communication network and includes a receive unit configured to receive a downlink beamforming transmission, and a beamforming processing unit configured to process the downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal pattern.

Claims

1. A transmitter for use with a cellular communication network, comprising:

a beamforming generation unit configured to generate a downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal (DRS) pattern; and

a transmit unit configured to transmit the downlink beamforming transmission.

2. The transmitter as recited in claim 1 wherein the DRS pattern is allocated to more than one beamforming transmit antenna using at least one selected from the group consisting of:

time division multiplexing;

frequency division multiplexing; and

code division multiplexing.

3. The transmitter as recited in claim 1 wherein the DRS pattern uses a same number of resource elements per resource block as in a single layer beamforming transmission for a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix.

4. The transmitter as recited in claim 1 wherein the DRS pattern provides a dedicated reference signal that is used in combination with a cell-specific reference signal.

5. The transmitter as recited in claim 1 wherein switching between a number of layers of the downlink beamforming transmission is performed on a semi-static basis, a dynamic basis, a cell-specific basis or a user equipment basis.

6. A method of operating a transmitter for use with a cellular communication network, comprising:

generating a downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal (DRS) pattern; and

transmitting the downlink beamforming transmission.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 wherein the DRS pattern is allocated to more than one beamforming transmit antenna using at least one selected from the group consisting of:

time division multiplexing;

frequency division multiplexing; and

code division multiplexing.

8. The method as recited in claim 6 wherein the DRS pattern uses a same number of resource elements per resource block as in a single layer beamforming transmission for a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix.

9. The method as recited in claim 6 wherein the DRS pattern provides a dedicated reference signal that is used in combination with a cell-specific reference signal.

10. The method as recited in claim 6 wherein switching between a number of layers of the downlink beamforming transmission is performed on a semi-static basis, a dynamic basis, a cell-specific basis or a user equipment basis.

11. A receiver for use with a cellular communication network, comprising:

a receive unit configured to receive a downlink beamforming transmission; and

a beamforming processing unit configured to process the downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal (DRS) pattern.

12. The receiver as recited in claim 11 wherein the DRS pattern is allocated to more than one beamforming transmit antenna using at least one selected from the group consisting of:

time division multiplexing;

frequency division multiplexing; and

code division multiplexing.

13. The receiver as recited in claim 11 wherein the DRS pattern uses a same number of resource elements per resource block as in a single layer beamforming transmission for a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix.

14. The receiver as recited in claim 11 wherein the DRS pattern provides a dedicated reference signal that is used in combination with a cell-specific reference signal.

15. The receiver as recited in claim 11 wherein switching between a number of layers of the downlink beamforming transmission is performed on a semi-static basis, a dynamic basis, a cell-specific basis or a user equipment basis.

16. A method of operating a receiver for use with a cellular communication network, comprising:

receiving a downlink beamforming transmission; and

processing the downlink beamforming transmission corresponding to multiple-layer spatial multiplexing and based on a dedicated reference signal (DRS) pattern.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the DRS pattern is allocated to more than one beamforming transmit antenna using at least one selected from the group consisting of:

time division multiplexing;

frequency division multiplexing; and

code division multiplexing.

18. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the DRS pattern uses a same number of resource elements per resource block as in a single layer beamforming transmission for a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix.

19. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the DRS pattern provides a dedicated reference signal that is used in combination with a cell-specific reference signal.

20. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein switching between a number of layers of the downlink beamforming transmission is performed on a semi-static basis, a dynamic basis, a cell-specific basis or a user equipment basis.