Patent ID: 9300369
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: H04B

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating a wireless terminal in a wireless communication network providing multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) downlink communications from a plurality of base station sector antenna arrays using a codebook of precoding vectors, the method comprising: during multi-point MIMO downlink communications with first and second base station sector antenna arrays, estimating first channel characteristics for a first downlink channel from the first base station sector antenna array to the wireless terminal and second channel characteristics for a second downlink channel from the second base station sector antenna array to the wireless terminal; during the multi-point MIMO downlink communications with the first and second base station sector antenna arrays, selecting first and second precoding vectors for the multi-point MIMO downlink communications from a subset of the precoding vectors of the codebook, wherein the first precoding vector is selected based on estimating the first channel characteristics for the first downlink channel, wherein the second precoding vector is selected based on estimating the second channel characteristics for the second downlink channel, and wherein selection of the first and second precoding vectors is restricted to the subset of the precoding vectors of the codebook during the multi-point MIMO downlink communications; and transmitting respective first and second identifications of the respective first and second precoding vectors selected for the multi-point MIMO downlink communications.