APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION

• US 20120182895A1
• Filed: 01/13/2012
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: JWA, Hye Kyung
• Application Number:
  US13/350,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20120182895A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0226 sounding signals per se
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams

Abstract

Provided are apparatus and a method for transmitting and receiving channel state information. The apparatus for transmitting channel state information includes a resource demapper configured to extract at least one of data, a user equipment (UE)-specific reference signal, and a cell-specific reference signal from an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-demodulated signal, a channel estimation unit configured to estimate a downlink channel on the basis of at least one of the UE-specific reference signal and the cell-specific reference signal, and a channel state information producer configured to produce at least one of a cell-specific channel quality indicator (CQI), a UE-specific CQI, and switched beam selection information on the basis of information on the estimated downlink channel. Accordingly, it is possible to efficiently perform channel adaptive transmission and beamforming-mode transmission in consideration of an actually reflected beamforming gain and interference cancellation gain.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting channel state information, comprising:

an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) demodulation unit configured to perform OFDM demodulation on a received signal;

a resource demapper configured to extract at least one of data, a user equipment (UE)-specific reference signal, and a cell-specific reference signal from the OFDM-demodulated signal;

a channel estimation unit configured to estimate a downlink channel on the basis of at least one of the UE-specific reference signal and the cell-specific reference signal; and

a channel state information producer configured to produce at least one of a cell-specific channel quality indicator (CQI), a UE-specific CQI, and switched beam selection information on the basis of information on the estimated downlink channel.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the channel estimation unit includes:

a UE-specific channel estimator configured to provide the channel estimation unit with UE-specific channel estimation results obtained by estimating the downlink channel on the basis of the UE-specific reference signal; and

a cell-specific channel estimator configured to provide the channel estimation unit with cell-specific channel estimation results obtained by estimating the downlink channel on the basis of the cell-specific reference signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when it becomes time to calculate a CQI, the channel state information producer calculates a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal using the cell-specific channel estimation results, and converts the calculated SNR into a predetermined number of CQI bits to calculate the cell-specific CQI.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when it becomes time to calculate a CQI, the channel state information producer calculates a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal using the UE-specific channel estimation results, and converts the calculated SNR into a predetermined number of CQI bits to calculate the UE-specific CQI.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when it becomes time to calculate a precoding matrix index (PMI), the channel state information producer selects one of a predetermined number of plural switched beams and generates selection information on the selected switched beam (a switched beam index (SBI)).

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the channel state information producer constructs a covariance matrix using the cell-specific channel estimation results, eigen-decomposes the covariance matrix to select an eigen vector having a largest eigen value, and then selects the switched beam having a highest degree of correlation with the selected eigen vector from among the plurality of switched beams.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the channel state information producer calculates signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the received signal by multiplying the cell-specific channel estimation results and vectors of the respective switched beams, and then selects the switched beam having a largest SNR.

8. An apparatus for receiving channel state information, comprising:

a scheduler configured to determine code rates and modulation schemes of respective user equipments (UEs) on the basis of at least one of cell-specific channel quality indicators (CQIs), UE-specific CQIs, and switched beam selection information transmitted from the respective UEs, determine positions of subcarriers in which UE-specific reference signals will be inserted, and determine beamforming weight vectors of the respective UEs;

a channel encoding unit configured to channel-encode bit streams according to the determined code rates;

a modulation unit configured to modulate the channel-encoded data according to the determined modulation schemes;

a resource mapping unit configured to insert UE-specific reference signals of the respective UEs according to the determined positions of the subcarriers; and

a beamforming unit configured to generate antenna-specific signals by applying the determined beamforming weight vectors of the respective UEs to signals provided by the resource mapping unit, and then allocate cell-specific reference signals to the antenna-specific signals.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein, when only a cell-specific CQI and switched beam selection information are transmitted from a specific UE, the scheduler determines a modulation scheme and code rate in consideration of a beamforming gain based on a beamforming weight vector and a cell-specific CQI, and

when the cell-specific CQI, a UE-specific CQI, and the switched beam selection information are transmitted from the specific UE, the scheduler determines a modulation scheme and code rate in consideration of the beamforming gain and an interference cancellation gain.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein, when the apparatus operates in a dual-layer beamforming mode as a downlink transmission mode and in a multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) mode, the scheduler selects transmission target UEs in consideration of the switched beam selection information transmitted from the plurality of UEs.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the scheduler determines vectors indicated by switched beam indices (SBIs), which are the switched beam selection information transmitted from the respective UEs, or precoding vectors having highest degrees of correlation with the vectors indicated by the SBIs as the beamforming weight vectors.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein, when a downlink transmission mode is a beamforming mode, the resource mapping unit inserts the UE-specific reference signals in every four subcarriers in a frequency axis direction of a resource block (RB) region to which physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources of a downlink subframe are allocated, and

when the downlink transmission mode is a dual-layer beamforming mode, the resource mapping unit inserts the UE-specific reference signals of the respective UEs in every five subcarriers in the frequency axis direction of the RB region to which the PDSCH resources of the downlink subframe are allocated.

13. A method of transmitting and receiving channel state information, comprising:

when it becomes time to calculate a channel quality indicator (CQI), extracting, at a channel state information transmitting apparatus, at least one of a cell-specific reference signal and a user equipment (UE)-specific reference signal from a received signal to estimate a downlink channel;

calculating, at the channel state information transmitting apparatus, at least one of a cell-specific CQI and UE-specific CQI on the basis of the channel estimation results;

when it becomes time to calculate a precoding matrix index (PMI), selecting, at the channel state information transmitting apparatus, a predetermined switched beam from among a predetermined number of plural switched beams; and

transmitting, at the channel state information transmitting apparatus, at least one of the cell-specific CQI, the UE-specific CQI, and switched beam selection information to a channel state information receiving apparatus.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein estimating the downlink channel includes:

when a downlink transmission mode is a beamforming mode, extracting the UE-specific reference signal from every four subcarriers in a frequency axis direction of a resource block (RB) region to which physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources of a downlink subframe are allocated, and when the downlink transmission mode is a dual-layer beamforming mode, extracting the UE-specific reference signal from every five subcarriers in the frequency axis direction of the RB region to which the PDSCH resources of the downlink subframe are allocated; and

estimating the downlink channel on the basis of the extracted UE-specific reference signal.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein calculating the at least one of the cell-specific CQI and UE-specific CQI includes:

when it becomes the time to calculate the CQI, calculating a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal using the channel estimation results obtained on the basis of the cell-specific reference signal; and

calculating the cell-specific CQI by converting the calculated SNR into a predetermined number of CQI bits.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein calculating the at least one of the cell-specific CQI and UE-specific CQI includes:

when it becomes the time to calculate the CQI, calculating a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal using the channel estimation results obtained on the basis of the UE-specific reference signal; and

calculating the UE-specific CQI by converting the calculated SNR into a predetermined number of CQI bits.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein selecting the predetermined switched beam from among the plurality of switched beams includes constructing a covariance matrix using the cell-specific channel estimation results obtained on the basis of the cell-specific reference signal, eigen-decomposing the covariance matrix to select an eigen vector having a largest eigen value, and then selecting the switched beam having a highest degree of correlation with the selected eigen vector from among the plurality of switched beams.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein selecting the predetermined switched beam from among the plurality of switched beams includes calculating signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the received signal by multiplying the cell-specific channel estimation results obtained on the basis of the cell-specific reference signal and vectors of the respective switched beams, and then selecting the switched beam having a largest SNR.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising a scheduling step of determining, at the channel state information receiving apparatus, at least one of a code rate, a modulation scheme, a position of a subcarrier in which the UE-specific reference signal will be inserted, and a beamforming weight vector on the basis of the cell-specific CQI, the UE-specific CQI, and the switched beam selection information transmitted from the channel state information transmitting apparatus.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the scheduling step includes selecting vectors indicated by switched beam indices (SBIs), which are the switched beam selection information transmitted from the plurality of channel state information transmitting apparatus, or precoding vectors having highest degrees of correlation with the vectors indicated by the SBIs as the beamforming weight vectors.