Patent ID: 8717927

Claim:
A method of operating a first communication node that communicates by multiple-input-multiple-output, MIMO, wireless communications with a second communication node of a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a sounding reference signal over a plurality of subcarriers transmitted by the second communication node for MIMO communications; measuring a channel quality responsive to the sounding reference signal (SRS) to output a first channel quality value, based on generating a Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) value for each of the plurality of subcarriers of the sounding reference signal; receiving a demodulation reference signal over a plurality of subcarriers transmitted by the second communication node for MIMO communications; measuring a channel quality responsive to the demodulation reference signal to output a second channel quality value, based on generating a SINR value for each of the plurality of subcarriers of the demodulation reference signal; determining a reliability of the first channel quality value and a reliability of the second channel quality value, based on determining a reliability of each of the SINR values for the plurality of subcarriers of the sounding reference signal based on a frequency separation between a subcarrier of the sounding reference signal used to generate the corresponding SINR value and at least one subcarrier of the second communication node controlled by the combined channel quality value, and determining a reliability of each of the SINR values for the plurality of subcarriers of the demodulation reference signal based on a frequency separation between a subcarrier of the demodulation reference signal used to generate the corresponding SINR value and the at least one subcarrier of the second communication node controlled by the combined channel quality value; and combining the first channel quality value and the second channel quality value while compensating for a difference between the determined reliabilities of the channel quality values to generate a combined channel quality value.