Patent ID: 8542757

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, said method comprising signaling channel quality information (CQI) in a multi-beam transmission system, wherein a number of beams simultaneously transmitted may vary, said method further comprising: transmitting a plurality of sequences of channel quality information values for controlling transmission rate on at least one of the beams, estimating channel quality by analyzing quality of transmission of each of the number of beams via a plurality of channel quality estimators; and deriving each sequence of the plurality of sequences of CQI values based on an assumed parameter of each of the number of beams, each sequence depending on transmissions made on other beams of the number of beams, wherein said plurality of sequences includes at least a first sequence of channel quality information values, which assumes no other beams being transmitted, and a second sequence of channel quality information values, which assumes at least one other beam being transmitted, said second sequence of channel quality including at least one value lower than any of those in said first sequence of channel quality.