Patent ID: 8730890

Claim:
A method of operating a mobile apparatus in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: receiving at the mobile apparatus an assigned starting point index, an assigned reference signal bandwidth for a first reference signal, and a hopping pattern parameter; and transmitting the reference signal multiple times from the mobile apparatus and across a shared channel bandwidth, the transmitting beginning at an initial resource block that is associated with the assigned starting point index and the transmitting in accordance with the assigned reference signal bandwidth, with portions of the shared channel bandwidth being configured for transmission of data related to the mobile apparatus; and wherein the transmitting the reference signal multiple times comprises: determining (i) at least one index point based on the hopping pattern parameter, (ii) a number of resource blocks corresponding to a configured portion of the shared channel bandwidth, and (iii) a first number of resource blocks corresponding to the first assigned reference signal bandwidth; determining at least one subsequent resource block that is associated with the at least one index point; assigning a first plurality of resource blocks starting at the first initial resource block, a first amount of resource blocks within the first plurality of resource blocks determined based at least in part on the first number of resource blocks; assigning at least a second plurality of resource blocks starting at the at least one subsequent resource block, a second amount of resource blocks within the second plurality of resource blocks determined based at least in part on the first number of resource blocks; and effecting multiple transmissions of the reference signal via the first plurality of resource blocks and the second plurality of resource blocks by the mobile apparatus.