Employing reference signals in communications

摘要

A method, an apparatus, a computer program product, and other embodiments are provided, which involve receiving a signal on a communications channel, correlating the received signal and a reference signal, and determining, on the basis of a result of the correlation, whether the reference signal can be employed on the communications channel. Additional aspects may provide improvements so that a simultaneous use of reference signals on the same communications channel may be detected. Further aspects may enable the performance of channel estimations on the basis of reference signals to be kept high even in networks where the distance between neighboring base stations employing the same reference signal is short and/or if the number of available reference signals is limited.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving a signal on a communications channel, wherein the received signal comprises one or more transmissions to be received, one or more interfering transmissions, and background noise, wherein the one or more transmissions or a part of the one or more transmissions to be received comprises an encoded transmission which is able to be decoded; decoding the encoded transmission; correlating the received signal and a first reference signal, wherein the correlation results in finding a level of correspondence between the received signal and the first reference signal, wherein the decoding results in obtaining information on the decoded received transmission to use for evaluating the results of the correlation; and determining, on the basis of the results of the decoding and the results of the correlation,
whether the first reference signal can be employed on the communications channel, andwhether the received signals on the communications channel are transmissions between a user equipment and a base stations.