METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A MULTI-USER MULTIPLE-INPUT MULTIPLE OUTPUT (MU-MIMO) WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

• US 20110211485A1
• Filed: 05/16/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics International N.V. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics International N.V. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Zhan, Ping, Wang, Ying, Xu, Kai, Sun, Kai, Zixiong, Chen, Ma, Ni, Zhou, Bei
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/21 for calibration; for correcting measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0615 of weighted versions of same signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0625 Transmitter arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling

Abstract

A technique for operating a wireless communications system that supports multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) communications between a base station and multiple mobile stations involves generating inter-cell interference information at the mobile stations and providing the inter-cell interference information to the base station. The base station uses the inter-cell interference information to calculate channel quality indicators (CQIs) and then makes scheduling decisions in response to the CQIs. Data is transmitted from the base station to the mobile stations according to the scheduling decisions.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

at a mobile station;

generating inter-cell interference information, and

transmitting the inter-cell interference information to the base station; and

at the base station;

calculating a channel quality indicator (CQI) for the mobile station using the inter-cell interference information transmitted from the mobile station,

making a scheduling decision in response to the CQI, and

transmitting data to the mobile station according to the scheduling decision.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein generating the inter-cell interference information comprises calculating a mean value and a standard deviation for multiple signals that are received at the mobile station.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein generating the inter-cell interference information comprises making signal measurements at the mobile station and selecting an index from a codebook in response to the signal measurements, wherein the index is representative of the measured signals.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising transmitting the codebook to the mobile station, wherein the codebook defines multiple indexes.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein generating the inter-cell interference information comprises making signal measurements at the mobile station, calculating mean values in response to the signal measurements, calculating standard deviations in response to the signal measurements, and selecting an index from a codebook in response to the signal measurements.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising providing the mean values and the standard deviations to the base station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which the index is provided to the base station.

27. The method of claim 21 further comprising, at the base station, calculating a CQI related to the mobile station for various usage schemes and making a scheduling decision in response to the calculated CQIs.

28. A base station for use in a wireless communications system that supports multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) communications between the base station and multiple mobile stations, the base station comprising:

a channel quality indicator (CQI) calculator configured to calculate CQIs for the mobile stations in response to inter-cell interference information received from the mobile stations;

a scheduler configured to make a scheduling decision in response to the CQI; and

a MU-MIMO transmitter configured to transmit data to the mobile stations according to the scheduling decision.

29. The base station of claim 28 further comprising a codebook module configured to store a codebook.

30. The base station of claim 29 wherein the codebook module is configured to distribute the codebook to the mobile stations.

31. The base station of claim 28 wherein the CQI calculator calculates a CQI related to a mobile station for various usage schemes and makes a scheduling decision in response to the calculated CQIs.

32. A method for a base station usable in a wireless communications system:

at the base station;

calculating a channel quality indicator (CQI) for a mobile station using the inter-cell interference information received from the mobile station;

making a scheduling decision in response to the CQI; and

transmitting data to the mobile station according to the scheduling decision.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the CQI is calculated at the base station using equivalent channel matrix information and usage scheme information for spatial sub-channels in addition to the inter-cell interference information that is received from the mobile station.

34. The method of claim 32 further comprising, at the base station, receiving mean values and standard deviations from the mobile station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which an index is provided to the base station.

35. The method of claim 32 further comprising, at the base station, calculating a CQI related to the mobile station for various usage schemes and making a scheduling decision in response to the calculated CQIs.

36. A method for a mobile station usable in a wireless communications system, the method comprising:

at a mobile station,

receiving and measuring multiple incoming signals;

generating inter-cell interference information; and

transmitting the inter-cell interference information to the base station for use in calculating a channel quality indicator (CQI).

37. The method of claim 36 wherein generating inter-cell interference information comprises calculating a mean value and a standard deviation for the received signals.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein generating inter-cell interference information comprises selecting an index from a codebook in response to the received signals.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the mean values and the standard deviations are transmitted to the base station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which the index is transmitted to the base station.

40. The method of claim 38 further comprising storing a codebook.