Patent ID: 7068977

Claim:
A method for reducing interference in a wireless communication system utilizing an antenna array, the antenna array using at least one or more channels for communicating with one or more mobile terminals, comprising: assigning at least one channel as an empty channel in which no desired signal is carried so as to provide a representation of all relevant interference; analyzing a spatial signature of the channels based on the interference received on the empty channel and the desired signals received on at least one signal channel; and reducing the interference on the signal channel by utilizing the analyzed spatial signature and the representation of all relevant interference, wherein the analyzing further includes: estimating data covariance matrices, R x and R in , wherein R in is a covariance matrix of the empty channel and the R x is a covariance matrix of the signal channel; estimating the spatial signature of the signal channels by finding a generalized principal eigenvector of a matrix pencil {R x , R in }; and obtaining a nulling weight vector for the signal channel based on the spatial signature and R in .