Patent ID: 9236916
Filing Date: 2016-01-12
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method, in an eNodeB, for generating downlink communications in a multiple antenna system, the eNodeB being comprised in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: transmitting, to a plurality of user equipments, a plurality of Channel State Information (CSI) reference signals, each reference signal being beamformed into a distinct direction within at least one correlated domain of the multiple antenna system, wherein the at least one correlated domain is an elevation domain; receiving, from a specific user equipment, at least one Channel State Information (CSI) report for at least a subset of said plurality of CSI reference signals, wherein the CSI report comprises a Precoder Matrix Indicator, PMI, a Rank Indicator (RI) and at least one signal quality indicator (CQI); determining at least one candidate beamforming direction for the specific user equipment, wherein the at least one candidate beamforming direction is based, at least in part, on a signal quality assessment, which comprises a reference signal received power (RSRP), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI); determining, by the eNodeB, at least one primary reference signal among said plurality of reference signals based on the received at least one CSI report; and generating downlink communication signals for antenna element(s) and/or sub-elements of the multiple antenna system, wherein the downlink communication signals are beamformed into a transmitting direction that aligns most closely with a beamforming direction of the at least one primary reference signal determined by the eNodeB, as compared to any other beamforming direction of reference signals comprised in the subset of said plurality of CSI reference signals.