Patent ID: 9503164
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for estimating a massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channel on which a first communication device having plural transmit antennas communicates with a second communication device having a single receive antenna, the massive MIMO channel having a channel covariance matrix that characterizes spatial correlations among the transmit antennas, the method comprising: partitioning, by the first communication device, the transmit antennas into plural antenna groups each comprising a subset of the transmit antennas such that a pre-determined level of channel-estimation accuracy is attained; and for an individual antenna group, determining, by the first communication device, one or more training signals for estimating a group of channels associated with the subset of the transmit antennas belonging to the individual antenna group; wherein the number of the antenna groups, the subset of the transmit antennas for forming the individual antenna group, and the one or more training signals for the individual antenna group are determined based on the spatial correlations, a maximum allowable total number of training signals and a transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) such that the pre-determined level of channel-estimation accuracy is achieved.