Patent ID: 8537876

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming, by a processor, a frequency hopping position of the sounding reference signal based on a hopping pattern; configuring the hopping pattern of the sounding reference signal to utilize a tree assignment for a frequency allocation of the sounding reference signal and to support at least one frequency band branch per layer; configuring the hopping pattern of the sounding reference signal to provide consecutive sounding reference signals on widely separated frequency allocations; defining a frequency-domain starting position for a hopping sounding reference signal based on a similar equation as the sounding reference signal without frequency hopping; and defining the hopping pattern in terms of n l for tree layers 1 and above: n l =F l,t +n l,orig mod N l , where n l,orig is a reference value of an allocation index for tree layer l, where N l is a number of new branches per a branch on an assignment tree layer l, where t is a time index for the sounding reference signal and is relative on a common reference frame and subframe number and is a function of the current frame number, the subframe number and a sounding reference signal period, n l is the sounding reference signal frequency position index on tree layer l, and F l,t is a sounding reference signal position.