Method, apparatus and system for using common and demodulation pilot signals in multi-antenna wireless communications

摘要

Multiple antennas employed at transmitting and receiving nodes can significantly increase a MIMO system capacity, especially when channel knowledge of link(s) between the transmitting and receiving nodes is available at the transmitting node. Channel knowledge may be acquired through feedback provided by the receiving node based on a plurality of common pilots transmitted by the transmitting node. The common pilots may include legacy and non-legacy pilots. If the feedback indicates that data demodulation at the receiving node can be enhanced, the transmitting node may also transmit demodulation pilot signal(s), which may coincide with the transmission of data. The receiving node can use the demodulation pilot signal(s), alone or with the common pilot signal(s), to demodulate data received from the transmitting node. The transmitting node may notify the receiving node to monitor for the demodulation pilot signal(s) through higher layer signaling and/or scheduling orders over a control channel.

主权项

1. A method performed by a receiving node of a wireless communication system, the receiving node being capable of multi-antenna reception, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of common pilot signals from a transmitting node; determining whether or not data demodulation can be enhanced at the receiving node; receiving one or more demodulation pilot signals and one or more common pilot signals from the transmitting node when it is determined that the data demodulation at the receiving node can be enhanced, receiving data from the transmitting node during a data reception time; and demodulating the received data based on the demodulation pilot signal(s) and the common pilot signal(s) when the demodulation pilot signal(s) are received, wherein each common pilot signal is transmitted from one antenna of the transmitting node, and no antenna of the transmitting node transmits more than one common pilot signal, wherein the plurality of common pilot signals include one or more legacy common pilot signals and one or more non-legacy common pilot signals, each legacy common pilot signal being transmitted at a higher power than each non-legacy common pilot signal, and wherein each legacy common pilot signal is understood by both legacy receiving nodes and non-legacy receiving nodes, and each non-legacy common pilot signal is understood by non-legacy receiving nodes but is not understood by legacy receiving nodes.