Patent ID: 7580490

Claim:
An apparatus for channel estimation using preamble signals received from a serving Node B and neighboring Node Bs in a user equipment (UE) in a broadband wireless communication system in which each of the Node Bs transmits a signal through N antennas and the UE receives a signal through M antennas, where N and M are each greater than or equal to one, the apparatus comprising: a Node B number decider for calculating a maximum number N S of channel-estimatable Node Bs using a preamble length, a number of antennas in each of the Node Bs, and a number of multiple paths; a multi-cell preamble matrix generator for generating a multi-cell preamble matrix x S by generating a Node B preamble matrix for each of the serving Node B and the neighboring Node Bs and selecting N S Node B preamble matrices according to reception power among the generated Node B preamble matrices; and a channel estimator for performing the channel estimation using the multi-cell preamble matrix x s and M signals received through the M antennas during a preamble receiving period.