Patent ID: 8599976

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining, by a user equipment, a channel matrix that is representative of a channel condition between the user equipment and a communication node; selecting, by the user equipment, (i) a first precoding matrix from a plurality of precoding matrices known to both the user equipment and the communication node, wherein the first precoding matrix is selected, by the user equipment, based on the channel matrix determined to be representative of the channel condition between the user equipment and the communication node, and wherein each of the plurality of candidate precoding matrices is associated with a corresponding direction, and (ii) a precoding matrix index that is representative of the first precoding matrix; transmitting, by the user equipment, the precoding matrix index to the communication node; receiving, by the user equipment from the communication node, a data signal comprising (i) a signal component and (ii) an interference component, wherein the signal component of the data signal is transmitted in the direction corresponding to the first precoding matrix, and wherein the interference component of the data signal is transmitted in a direction corresponding to a precoding matrix of the plurality of precoding matrices that is different from the first precoding matrix; based at least in part on the precoding matrix index representative of the first precoding matrix, determining, by the user equipment, a first plurality of directions correspondingly associated with a first plurality of precoding matrices, the first plurality of precoding matrices being a subset of the plurality of precoding matrices, the first plurality of precoding matrices being different from the first precoding matrix; assigning a first direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component; based on assigning the first direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component, attempting to decode the data signal; in response to a failure to decode the data signal based on assigning the first direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component, assigning a second direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component; based on assigning the second direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component, attempting to decode the data signal; and in response to a success in decoding the data signal based on assigning the first direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component, refraining from (i) assigning the second direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component and (ii) attempting to decode the data signal based on assigning the second direction of the first plurality of directions as the direction of the interference component.