Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving CSI-RS operating in massive MIMO system FDD mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9635642-B2
Application number	US-201213728450-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2012
Priority date	Dec 27, 2011
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for beamforming and information feedback are provided. Signals for beams to be transmitted through corresponding antenna ports, are generated. The beams are formed by precoding the signals with beamforming vectors. The beams are sorted into a number of resource reuse groups based on a resource that is to be shared. The beams are transmitted, using resources allocated per group, to a receiver. Feedback information is generated on at least one antenna port, based on the received beams. The feedback information is transmitted to the transmitter. A beam is selected having a greatest gain for a transmitter using the feedback information. A transmission resource is allocated for the selected beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A beamforming method of a transmitter using a plurality of antenna ports in a wireless communication system, the beamforming method comprising:
generating signals for beams to be transmitted through corresponding antenna ports;
forming the beams by precoding the signals with beamforming vectors;
sorting the beams into a plurality of resource reuse groups which share a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource;
transmitting, to a receiver, CSI-RSs using the beams on CSI-RSs resources determined based on the resource reuse groups, a plurality of beams included in one of the resource reuse groups being transmitted in one of the CSI-RSs resources;
selecting a beam based on feedback information on the CSI-RSs transmitted by the receiver; and
allocating a transmission resource for the selected beam,
wherein selecting the beam comprises:
receiving an index of one of the resource reuse groups having a greatest gain in association with a downlink channel and a beamforming vector, from the receiver;
estimating an uplink spatial correlation matrix using an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmitted by the receiver;
calculating an average channel gain on downlink channels using the estimated uplink spatial correlation matrix; and
determining the beam having the greatest gain for the transmitter from among the plurality of beams included in the one of the resource reuse groups having the index and the average channel gain on the downlink channels.

2. The beamforming method of claim 1 , wherein sorting the beams comprises grouping beams having a minimum interference with each other into a resource reuse group.

3. The beamforming method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting information including at least one of a number of beams reusing each resource element, each CSI-RS resource, and a power allocated for each beam to estimate channel quality information at the receiver, through higher layer signaling.

4. An information feedback method by a receiver in a wireless communication system, the information feedback method comprising:
receiving, from a transmitter, beams sorted into a plurality of resource reuse groups through channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)s resources determined based on respective resource reuse groups, a plurality of beams included in one of the resource reuse groups being transmitted in one of the CSI-RSs resources;
generating feedback information on CSI-RSs, based on the received beams, to determine a beam at the transmitter; and
transmitting the feedback information to the transmitter,
wherein the beams transmitted from the transmitter are formed by precoding per-beam signals to be transmitted through respective antenna ports of the transmitter with respective beamforming vectors,
wherein transmitting the feedback information comprises:
transmitting an index of one of the resource reuse groups having a greatest gain in association with a downlink channel and a beamforming vector, to the transmitter, and
wherein an uplink spatial correlation matrix is estimated using an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmitted by the receiver,
wherein an average channel gain on downlink channels is calculated using the estimated uplink spatial correlation matrix; and
wherein the beam having the greatest gain for the transmitter is determined from among the plurality of beams included in the one of the resource reuse groups having the index and the average channel gain on the downlink channels.

5. The information feedback method of claim 4 , wherein generating the feedback information comprises:
determining an index of one of the resource reuse groups having a greatest channel gain in association with a downlink channel and a beamforming vector; and
transmitting the index to the transmitter.

6. The information feedback method of claim 4 , further comprising receiving information including at least one of a number of beams reusing each resource element, each CSI-RS resource, and a power allocated for each beam for use in channel quality information estimation at a receiver, through higher layer signaling.

7. The information feedback method of claim 6 , further comprising:
estimating channel quality information using the information received through higher layer signaling; and
transmitting the channel quality information to the transmitter.

8. The information feedback method of claim 7 , wherein the channel quality information comprises at least one of a reception available signal-to-interference and noise ratio, a data rate available from the transmitter to the receiver, and a modulation and coding scheme available for transmission from the transmitter to the receiver.

9. A transmitter equipped with a plurality of antenna ports for beamforming in a wireless communication system, the transmitter comprising:
a radio communication unit configured to communicate signals with a receiver; and
a control unit configured to control to generate signals for beams to be transmitted through corresponding antenna ports, to form the beams by precoding the signals with beamforming vectors, to sort the beams into a plurality of resource reuse groups which share a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource, to transmit, to a receiver, CSI-RSs using the beams on CSI-RS resources determined based on the respective resource reuse groups, and select a beam based on feedback information on the CSI-RSs transmitted by the receiver, and to allocate a transmission resource for the selected beam,
wherein a plurality of beams included in one of the resource reuse groups are transmitted in one of the CSI-RSs resources, and
wherein the control unit is further configured to control to receive an index of one of the resource reuse groups having a greatest gain in association with a downlink channel and a beamforming vector, from the receiver, to estimate an uplink spatial correlation matrix using an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmitted by the receiver, to calculate an average channel gain on downlink channels using the estimated uplink spatial correlation matrix, and to determine the beam having the greatest gain for the transmitter from among the plurality of beams included in the one of the resource reuse groups having the index and the average channel gain on the downlink channels.

10. The transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the control unit is further configured to control grouping of the beams having a minimum interference with each other into a resource reuse group.

11. The transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the control unit is further configured to control transmission of information including at least one of a number of beams reusing each resource element, each CSI-RS resource, and a power allocated for each beam to estimate channel quality information at the receiver, through higher layer signaling.

12. A receiver for transmitting feedback information to a transmitter in a wireless communication system, the receiver comprising:
a radio communication unit configured to communicate signals with the transmitter; and
a control unit configured to control to receive, from a transmitter, beams sorted into a plurality of resource reuse groups through channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)s resources determined based on the respective resource reuse groups, to generate feedback information on the CSI-RSs, based on the received beams, to determine a beam at the transmitter and to transmit the feedback information to the transmitter,
wherein the beams transmitted from the transmitter are formed by precoding per-beam signals to be transmitted through respective antenna ports

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
• Industry-Academic Coop Found Korea Nat Univ Of Transp
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
• Industry-Academic Coop Found Korean Nat Univ Of Transp

Inventors

• Lee Hyojin
• Mun Cheol
• Kim Kiil
• Kim Younsun
• Lee Juho
• Cho Joonyoung

Classifications

• H04L5/0023 Primary

  Time-frequency-space · CPC title

• H04L5/143

  for modulated signals (H04L5/1469 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L1/06

  using space diversity · CPC title

• H04L1/0009

  by adapting the channel coding (H04L1/1812 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L5/0048

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title