Patent ID: 8897339

Claim:
A method of increasing impairment co-variance matrix R u estimation accuracy in downlink in a user equipment in a communication network system comprising a plurality of communication network nodes communicating with one or more user equipments, where each network node is serving at least one cell in which one or more user equipments are located, the method comprising the steps of: performing de-spread on high speed-downlink channel symbols to form a matrix X of de-spread symbols; using the matrix X of de-spread symbols and channel estimates h c from common pilot channel and modulation scheme information to form a matrix S of recovered symbols in hard value; using the matrix X of de-spread symbols and the channel estimates h c from common pilot channel, the modulation scheme information and the matrix S of recovered symbols in hard value output to increase the estimation accuracy of the matrix S of recovered symbols in hard value; repeating the use of the matrix X of de-spread symbols and the channel estimates h c from common pilot channel, the modulation scheme information and the matrix S of recovered symbols in hard value output until the output symbols are the same as the input symbols or the number of iterations reaches a pre-defined maximum value; using the matrix X of de-spread symbols and the matrix S of recovered symbols in hard value with increased estimation accuracy to form an impairment co-variance matrix R u estimate; and using the impairment co-variance matrix R u estimate and the channel estimates h c from common pilot channel to determine generalized RAKE combining weight w and to estimate common pilot channel signal to interference plus noise ratio.