Patent ID: 8717947

Claim:
A method in a controller node for distributing code text of a joint spatial coding in a communications network comprising at least two communication nodes, the at least two communication nodes comprising a different number of transmit antennas and different spatial method capabilities, the method comprising: joint spatial coding a symbol resulting in at least a first spatial code text and a second spatial code text, the first spatial code text and the second spatial code text being output from a precoder, the first code text comprising a real symbol and the second code text being a complex conjugate of the first code text, grouping the transmit antennas in the communications network into at least a first transmit antenna group and a second transmit antenna group based on a location of coverage area of the transmit antennas and feedback from user equipment units, and distributing the first spatial code text to the first transmit antenna group for transmission to a second communication node for inclusion in a first signal to be transmitted from the second communication node and distributing the second spatial code text to the second transmit antenna group for transmission to a third communication node for inclusion in a second signal to be transmitted from the third communication node.