Patent ID: 9497047
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L

Claim Text:
1. For use by a base station (BS) in a wireless network, a method comprising: configuring a first sounding channel to be an uplink sounding slot comprising at least one orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol in an uplink sub-frame in order to carry one or more uplink sounding reference symbols (UL-SRSs) corresponding to at least one transmit beam of a first set of transmit beams in a first sounding channel set of sub-bands, the first sounding channel set of sub-bands comprising one or more sub-bands that cover a first data bandwidth; transmitting, to a mobile station (MS), a first UL sounding configuration message that sets a sounding sub-band bitmap value to a maximum specifiable value and indicates UL-SRS placement in the first sounding channel set of sub-bands; receiving, through the first sounding channel set of sub-bands from the MS, the one or more UL-SRSs corresponding to at least the one transmit beam of the first set of transmit beams for channel estimation over the first data bandwidth; configuring a second sounding channel to be a second uplink sounding slot comprising at least the one OFDM symbol in a second uplink sub-frame in order to carry one or more UL-SRSs corresponding to at least the one transmit beam of a second set of transmit beams in a second sounding channel set of sub-bands, the second sounding channel set of sub-bands comprising at least a subset of the first sounding channel set of sub-bands, the second set of transmit beams comprising at least a subset of the first set of transmit beams used in the first sounding channel; transmitting, to the MS, a second UL sounding configuration message that sets a second sounding sub-band bitmap value to a value no greater than the maximum specifiable value and indicates UL-SRS placement in the second sounding channel set of sub-bands; and receiving, through the second sounding channel set of sub-bands from the MS, the one or more UL-SRSs corresponding to at least the one transmit beam of the second set of transmit beams for channel estimation over a second data bandwidth, wherein the second data bandwidth is at least a subset of the first data bandwidth.