Method and arrangement for pilot pattern based control signaling in MIMO systems

Abstract

A radio base station, user equipment (UE), and method of control signaling in wireless communication systems. Control information is transferred from a base station to at least one UE, via a plurality of common pilot channels. A set of unique pilot sequences is predefined, and the base station assigns specific pilot sequences from the set of pilot sequences to specific common pilot channels, forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern representing specific control information. The UE, having knowledge of the relations between pilot sequence assignment patterns and control information, interprets the received pilot sequence assignment pattern as specific control information. The method is particularly well suited for broadcast type control information.

Claims

1. A method in a user equipment for transferring control information to a radio base station in a wireless communication network, wherein a plurality of common pilot channels are available between the user equipment and the radio base station, wherein the method comprises: defining a set of unique pilot sequences; assigning, by the user equipment, specific pilot sequences from the set of unique pilot sequences to specific common pilot channels of the plurality of common pilot channels, thereby forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern that represents the control information; and transmitting, by the user equipment to the radio base station, the assigned specific pilot sequences on the specific common pilot channels.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the assigning step includes using, by the user equipment, a list of pre-determined relations between pilot sequence assignment patterns and specific control information to determine the pilot sequence assignment pattern that represents the control information.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the list of pre-determined relations is formed as a concordance list, shared between all radio base stations and user equipments in the wireless communication network, relating the pilot sequence assignment patterns to the specific control information.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control information comprises a representation indicating a type of control information and an associated parameter value.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein two specific common pilot channels are used to transmit the assigned specific pilot sequences.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control information includes information about a current power or code allocation of the radio base station.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network is a Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO)-based wireless network, and the plurality of common pilot channels relates to a plurality of transmit antennas provided by a MIMO configuration.

8. A method in a radio base station for receiving control information from a user equipment in a wireless communication network, wherein a plurality of common pilot channels are available between the radio base station and the user equipment, wherein the method comprises: defining a set of unique pilot sequences; and receiving, by the radio base station, specific pilot sequences from the set of unique pilot sequences transmitted by the user equipment on specific common pilot channels of the plurality of common pilot channels, thereby forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern that represents the control information.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: using, by the radio base station, a list of pre-determined relations between pilot sequence assignment patterns and specific control information to determine the pilot sequence assignment pattern that represents the control information.

10. A radio base station for receiving control information from a user equipment in a wireless communication network, wherein a plurality of common pilot channels are available between the radio base station and the user equipment, wherein the radio base station comprises: a memory for storing a defined set of unique pilot sequences; a receiving circuit configured to receive specific pilot sequences from the defined set of unique pilot sequences transmitted by the user equipment on specific common pilot channels of the plurality of common pilot channels, thereby forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern that represents the control information; and a processing circuit configured to utilize a list of pre-determined relations between pilot sequence assignment patterns and specific control information to derive the control information transmitted from the user equipment.

11. The radio base station according to claim 10, wherein the list of pre-determined relations is stored in a pilot sequences pattern storage in a form of a concordance list, shared between all radio base stations and user equipments in the wireless communication network.

12. The radio base station according to claim 10, wherein the control information comprises a representation indicating a type of control information and an associated parameter value.

13. The radio base station according to claim 10, wherein the receiving circuit is further configured to use two specific common pilot channels to receive the specific pilot sequences, providing four uplink signaling bits.

14. A user equipment for transferring control information to a radio base station in a wireless communication network, wherein a plurality of common pilot channels are available between the user equipment and the radio base station, wherein the user equipment comprises: a memory for storing a defined set of unique pilot sequences; a processing circuit configured to assign specific pilot sequences from the defined set of unique pilot sequences to specific common pilot channels of the plurality of common pilot channels, thereby forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern representing the control information; and a transmitting circuit configured to transmit the assigned specific pilot sequences on the specific common pilot channels.

15. The user equipment according to claim 14, wherein a list of pre-determined relations is stored in a pilot sequences pattern storage in a form of a concordance list, shared between all radio base stations and user equipments in the wireless communication network.

16. The user equipment according to claim 14, wherein the control information comprises a representation indicating a type of control information and an associated parameter value.

17. The user equipment according to claim 14, wherein the transmitting circuit is configured to use two specific common pilot channels to transmit the specific pilot sequences, providing four uplink signaling bits.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawing figures, wherein

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a wireless communication system wherein the methods and arrangement according to the present invention may be implemented;

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates schematic illustrations of the principles of conveying control information according to the present invention;

(4) FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of the method according to the present invention;

(5) FIGS. 4a-4b schematically illustrate pilot sequences, (a) un-shortened and (b) shortened, suitable for an embodiment of the invention;

(6) FIGS. 5a-5b schematically illustrate a radio base station and user equipment according to the present invention; and

(7) FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a second embodiment of the method according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) The present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.

(9) A possible communication scenario wherein the method and arrangement according to the present invention is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1. The wireless communication network 100 comprises a radio base station, BS, 110, sometimes also in the art referred to as a node B, and a plurality of User Equipments, UEs, 120:1-6. Some of the UEs, 120:1-4 are in active communication with the BS 110, which in the figure is indicated with solid arrows, while the other UEs 120:5-6 are in a standby mode, however still maintaining some control signaling with the BS 110 (dashed arrows). The BS 110 and at least some of the UEs, UEs 120:3-5, are configured to communicated over a plurality of links, for example multi-antenna arrangements adapted for MIMO-based communication. The channel characterization relies on pilot signaling on the common pilot channels, the CPICH channels. Each transmit antenna, or antenna stream is associated with one CPICH.

(10) The term radio base station should be given a broad interpretation, including the meaning of a BS as it is conceived in current wireless systems such as GSM and UMTS, but also a radio node that does not have to be fixed, and/or only occasionally has the role of a BS, in for example an Ad-hoc network.

(11) The UEs may for example be a mobile phone, a user equipment of various kinds: such as laptop computers, PDAs, cameras, video/audio players and game pads provided with radio communication abilities, a vehicle or a stationary machine provided with radio communication abilities.

(12) According to the method of the invention, a set of pilot sequences has been defined, each pilot sequence comprising a pre-determined number of symbols. In a pilot signaling procedure in the BS 110 each pilot channel is assigned a specific pilot sequence from the set of pilot sequences. By letting a certain assignment of pilot sequences to the pilot channels representing a specific information, signaling information is conveyed to the UEs. It can be seen as a specific pilot sequence assignment pattern corresponding to a specific information representation. The UEs 120, having knowledge of the set of pilot sequences and the information represented by different assignment patterns, can derive the signaling information by identifying which pilot sequences that were transmitted. The nature of this signaling, conveyed on pilot channels, makes it best suitable for broadcast-type control signaling. The pilot sequences and the information represented by the pilot sequence assignment patterns is preferably standardized.

(13) The principle of the invention is schematically outlined in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, three antennas C.sub.1, C.sub.2 and C.sub.3 and a set of separate pilot signals or sequences, {P.sub.1, P.sub.2, . . . P.sub.6}, for example, are available. At a first time instance, T.sub.1, pilot sequence P.sub.1 is transmitted from antenna C.sub.1, P.sub.3 from C.sub.2, and P.sub.5 from C.sub.3, representing first information, illustrated with A. At a second time instance T.sub.2, P.sub.2 is transmitted from antenna C.sub.1, P.sub.4 from C.sub.2, and P.sub.6 from C.sub.3, representing second information, illustrated with B.

(14) The method according to the invention, suitable for the communication system outlined in FIG. 2, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3, and comprises the steps of: 305: An update of broadcast-type parameters is initiated or recognized by the BS 110. The BS determines control information to be broadcasted, for example a parameter value or values. 310: The BS 110 selects a pilot sequence assignment pattern, based on a pre-determined relation between sequence assignment patterns and control information. The pre-determined relation may for example be in a form of a concordance list, shared between all nodes in the system, relating pilot sequence assignment patterns to specific information, parameter values etc. 315: The BS 110 transmitting pilot sequences on the CPICHs according to the selected pilot sequence assignment pattern. 320: A UE 120 receives the pilots and determines the pilot sequence assignment pattern by detecting which pilot sequence was used on which CPICH. 325: The UE 120 extracts the control signaling by using the pre-determined relation between sequence assignment patterns and control information. For example, the type of control information and an associated parameter value can be derived by comparing the determined pilot sequence assignment pattern with the pre-determined concordance list.

(15) A preferred embodiment of the invention is applicable to MIMO-based systems using more than two antennas. For a MIMO system to achieve significant gains over a SIMO system, often 4 transmit antennas are needed. According to this embodiment control information is signaled in the CPICH channels from transmit antennas 3 and 4. A set of pilot sequences, S={s.sub.1, s.sub.2, s.sub.3 . . . } is determined to be used in the system. Following the same CPICH spreading factor and transmission time interval, TTI, length as in Rel. 5, there are 30 pilot symbols per TTI. Pilot sequences can be chosen in a number of ways. A suitable choice is to use shortened Hadamard sequences. An example of length-32 Hadamard sequences is illustrated in FIG. 4a. These sequences may be shortened in a simple way by taking the first 30 bits of each sequence, giving a set of (shortened) pilot sequences S={s.sub.1, s.sub.2, s.sub.3, . . . , s.sub.30} as illustrated in FIG. 4b. According to the embodiment the pilot patterns of CPICH on 3rd and 4th antennas are determined based on 4 downlink signaling bits. These downlink signaling bits can for example be used to signal instantaneous power and code allocation to the UEs. Since this information is updated in everyTTI, the SINR scaling error can be minimized, which will be discussed below. An example of how pilot patterns are determined is shown in Table 1.

(16) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Pilot patterns on 3rd and 4th antennas. CPICH on CPICH on x.sub.4 x.sub.3 x.sub.2 x.sub.1 antenna 3 antenna 4 0 0 0 0 s.sub.1 s.sub.2 0 0 0 1 s.sub.3 s.sub.4 0 0 1 0 s.sub.5 s.sub.6 0 0 1 1 s.sub.7 s.sub.8 0 1 0 0 s.sub.9 s.sub.10 0 1 0 1 s.sub.11 s.sub.12 0 1 1 0 s.sub.13 s.sub.14 0 1 1 1 s.sub.15 s.sub.16 1 0 0 0 s.sub.17 s.sub.18 1 0 0 1 s.sub.19 s.sub.20 1 0 1 0 s.sub.21 s.sub.22 1 0 1 1 s.sub.23 s.sub.24 1 1 0 0 s.sub.25 s.sub.26 1 1 0 1 s.sub.27 s.sub.28 1 1 1 0 s.sub.29 s.sub.30 1 1 1 1 s.sub.31 s.sub.32

(17) Here x.sub.1, x.sub.2, x.sub.3 and x.sub.4 are the four downlink signaling bits. In the example of signal power and code allocation, the four signaling bits can be used to signal 16 quantized combinations of instantaneous power and code allocation. Alternatively, they can be used to signal 16 quantized instantaneous power allocation in one TTI, and 16 quantized instantaneous code allocation in the next TTI. Alternatively, the four signaling bits can be used to signal only the instantaneous code allocation in every TTI.

(18) In order to extract the signaling information bits, the UE needs to correlate with all possible pilot sequences in the set of pilot sequences to determine which pilot sequence is the most likely one used on antennas 3 and 4. Such correlations are known in the art and fairly simple operations and thus do not give rise to much complexity overhead. Further, the power allocated to CPICHs is strong enough for the UE to estimate channel coefficients. Such CPICH power will be sufficient for the UE to make a reliable decision first regarding which pilot sequence is used, because in making such a decision the UE enjoys a very large processing gain (7680). Thus, x.sub.1, x.sub.2, x.sub.3 and x.sub.4 can be detected reliably. After determining which pilot pattern is used, the UE may perform channel and CQI estimation in the same way as any of the conventional methods. According to the method of the invention, there is no increase in code and power overhead associated to the signaling of these additional downlink signaling bits.

(19) As appreciated by the skilled in the art, the above scheme can be extended to encompass more than four signaling bits, by using a larger set of pilot sequences. However, some practical limitations are given by the number of possible pilot sequences for a given TTI length.

(20) Other types of signaling information than the above exemplified may by conveyed in the pilot signaling according to the invention. The broadcast nature of the signaling information provided by the invention makes it best suited for broadcast or multicast control information. The control information may be updated every TTI, without increasing the load in the system, making the invention particular suitable for fairly rapidly changing broadcast-type information. Such signaling information include, but is not limited to the above mentioned signal power and code allocation and parameters needed for network controlled feedback, See U.S. Patent Application 20060079221 Network Controlled Feedback for MIMO Systems. For network controlled feedback, a parameter named feedback threshold is broadcast by the base station to control the amount of feedback traffic in the uplink. The feedback threshold can be a SINR value. In this case, only user equipment which have received SINR higher than the SINR threshold are allowed to feed back detailed channel quality information. Alternatively, the feedback threshold can be a scheduling metric. In this case, only user equipment which have scheduling metrics higher than the feedback threshold are allowed to feed back detailed channel quality information. According to the present invention, this feedback threshold may by conveyed in the pilot symbol patterns assigned to transmit antennas 3 and 4.

(21) The invention has so far, for the reason of clarity only, been described in a downlink scenario. As appreciated by the skilled in the art a similar approach can be utilized also in uplink. The method can be used also in Ad hoc networks wherein a UE temporarily acts as a base station and distribute pilot signals.

(22) Arrangements according to the present invention in a radio base station and user equipment, respectively, suitable for effectuating the above described embodiments are schematically illustrated in FIGS. 5a and 5b. The modules and blocks according to the present invention are to be regarded as functional parts of a base station and/or a user equipment in a communication system, and not necessarily as physical objects by themselves. The modules and blocks are preferably at least partly implemented as software code means, to be adapted to effectuate the method according to the invention. However, depending on the chosen implementation, certain modules may be realized as physically distinctive objects in a receiving or sending node. The term comprising does primarily refer to a logical structure and the term connected should here be interpreted as links between functional parts and not necessarily physical connections. As is well known in the art, a specific function can be made to reside in different nodes in the communication system, depending on the current implementation. Thus, the means in the following ascribed to a sending/receiving node (base station or a user equipment), could at least partly be implemented in another node in the system, for examples in a radio network controller (RNC), but made to effectuate the signalling from the sending/receiving node.

(23) The base station 505 comprises radio communication means 510, which provides the necessary functionalities for performing the actual reception and transmission of radio signals and is well known by the skilled person. The base station is typically a part of an access network. The radio communication means 510 are adapted for communication via a plurality of antennas 515. An antenna stream and one CPICH are associated to each antenna. The radio communication means 510 is connected to control signal processing means 520 adapted to handle control signalling with other radio nodes. According to the invention the radio communication means 510 and the control signal processing means 520 of the base station 505 are adapted to effectuate transmission of different pilot sequences on different antennas. The control signal processing means 520 is connected to a pilot sequences storage 525 storing the pilot sequences relevant for the communication system. The control signal processing means 520 is further connected to a pilot sequences pattern storage 530 comprising a list of the pre-determined relation between specific pilot sequences patterns and specific control information. The base station may further comprise analysing and determining means 535, in connection with the radio communication means 510 and the control signal processing means 520, adapted to, for example, collect and analyse data on signal quality and to determine suitable code and power allocation. A requirement for control signalling may be recognized by the analysing and determining means 535, or communicated to the base station from other parts of the access network. Upon such request the control signal processing means 520 determines the pilot sequences pattern, or patterns, by retrieving the relation between the control information and the pilot sequences pattern from the pilot sequences pattern storage 530. The individual pilot sequences are retrieved from the sequences storage 525 by the control signal processing means 520. The control signal processing means 520 has thus determined a set of pilot sequences and instructs the radio communication means 510 to transmit the set.

(24) The user equipment 555 comprises radio communication means 560, which provides the necessary functionalities for performing the actual reception and transmission of radio signals and is well known by the skilled person. The user equipment is preferably provided with a plurality of antennas 565 and the radio communication means are capable of discerning signals simultaneously transmitted on different channels, for example different pilot sequences. Control signal reception means 570 is adapted to handle the control signalling of the user equipment. According to the invention the user equipment 555 is provided with a pilot sequences storage 575, in connection with control signal processing means 570, and arranged to store the pilot sequences used in the communication system. The control signal processing means 570 is further connected to a pilot sequences pattern storage 580 comprising the list relating specific pilot sequences patterns with specific control information. The control signal processing means 570 is adapted to use information retrieved from the pilot sequences pattern storage 580 to interpreted the meaning of a received pilot sequences pattern. The thus received and interpreted control information may for example be used by the control signal processing means 570 to instruct the radio communication means 560 to adjust transmission parameters in further communication.

(25) The user equipment may for example be a mobile station, a laptop computer, a PDA, a camera, a video/audio player or a game pad provided with radio communication abilities. Other examples include, but is not limited to machinery provided with radio communication abilities, such as vehicles or stationary machines such as automatic vending machines.

(26) An implementation of the invention will be described with reference to PARC-MIMO used for HS-DSCH as a non-limiting example. In PARC-MIMO it is of high importance for maintaining a high CQI estimation accuracy, that the BS 210 can broadcast updates of power and/or code allocation information to the UEs. The information facilitates accurate SINR estimates in the UEs. As indicated in the background PARC-MIMO requires feedback of the per-antenna rates which are based on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs) at each stage of the SIC.

(27) SINR feedbacks are already needed for the rate adaptation process employed for HS-DSCH to enhance the spectral efficiency. With rate adaptation, the Node B selects an appropriate data transmission rate suitable for a given channel condition. Thus, when the channel is in a deep fade, a lower data transmission rate is used, whereas when the channel condition is good, a higher data transmission rate is used. Rate adaptation can also be used to account for the variation of code and power availability. When the Node B has lots of available codes and available power, a higher data transmission rate is used. On the other hand, when the Node B has only very limited amount of unused codes and power, a lower data transmission rate is used. The adaptation process is illustrated in FIG. 6. To facilitate rate adaptation, all the standby UEs have to report back, step 615 to the Node B a channel quality indicator (CQI), which is typically a quantized version of the RAKE receiver SINR, measured, for example, at the output of SIC-GRAKE receiver. The SINR can be the symbol SINR on a single code of the HS-DSCH, or can be the aggregate SINR on all the codes of HS-DSCH. Note that the aggregate SINR on all the codes is simply the symbol SINR on a single code times the number of codes allocated to the HS-DSCH. For the purpose of this description CQI will be equated to the symbol SINR at the output of SIC-GRAKE. In the rate adaptation process, a UE, without the knowledge of instantaneous code and power available at the serving Node B, typically estimates in step 610 the output symbol SINR according to a nominal code and power allocation. In SISO operations, nominal code allocations are defined in CQI tables, standardized by the 3GPP, used for rate adaptation, where the nominal power allocation is signaled in one of the downlink control channels, step 605. Note that these nominal code and power allocations are established for the purpose of CQI measurement and reporting, and are not intended for reflecting the actual code and power availability at Node B. In fact, the control channel that carries the nominal power allocation has a very slow update rate.

(28) After receiving the CQI feedback, the Node B would need to scale the reported SINR according to the instantaneous code and power that will be allocated to the UE, step 620. This adjusted SINR is then used to select an appropriate modulation and coding scheme (MCS) in step 625.

(29) In a MIMO based system, scaling process performed in Node B is under certain circumstances non-trivial. In general, the output symbol SINR in dB can be modeled approximately as a linear function of code and power allocation. However, the linear scaling slope depends on I.sub.or/I.sub.oc, multipath delay profile, as well as the code and power allocation. Here, I.sub.or is the total power received from the serving Node B, and I.sub.oc is the total power received from all the other base stations plus thermal noise. SINR scaling at the Node B, if not done correctly, will result in the adjusted SINR to be very different from the true SINR. If the adjusted SINR is too high, the selected transmission data rate is higher than the rate that the radio channel can support. This often results in errors in the transmitted data. If the adjusted SINR is too low, the selected transmission data rate is lower than the rate that the radio channel can support. In either case, the system throughput is degraded.

(30) The G-RAKE output symbol SINR can be described as:

(31) $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{SINR}=\frac{}{K}{h}^H{R}^{-1}h& \left(1\right)\end{array}$
where and K are the total power and number of spreading codes allocated to the HS-DSCH, respectively, and h and R are net response and impairment covariance matrix, respectively. The ratio /K can be interpreted as the power allocated to each of the HS-DSCH codes. In SISO Systems, the noise covariance matrix R can be measured directly from the CPICH. It can be shown that in the SISO case, R is independent of power allocation on the downlink code channels. As a result, SINR in dB scales linearly, with slope 1 or 1 with respect to power allocation () and code allocation (K), respectively.

(32) For rate adaptation in a SISO System, the UE estimates an SINR based on reference power and code allocations .sub.ref and K.sub.ref, respectively. The factors .sub.ref and K.sub.ref are established as a common reference for the purpose of SINR estimation, and are typically not the same as the actual instantaneous power and code allocations, denoted by .sub.inst and K.sub.inst, respectively. In this setup, the SINR estimated in the UE is therefore

(33) $\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{SINR}}_{\mathrm{ref}}=\frac{{}_{\mathrm{ref}}}{K_{\mathrm{ref}}}{h}^H{R}^{-1}h& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

(34) The estimated SINR will then be reported back to the Node B through CQI feedbacks. and the Node B will need to scale SINR.sub.ref for the instantaneous power and code allocations. Note that the instantaneous SINR is

(35) $\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{SINR}}_{\mathrm{inst}}=\frac{{}_{\mathrm{inst}}}{K_{\mathrm{inst}}}{h}^H{R}^{-1}h=\frac{{}_{\mathrm{inst}}}{{}_{\mathrm{ref}}}{\left(\frac{K_{\mathrm{inst}}}{K_{\mathrm{ref}}}\right)}^{-1}{\mathrm{SINR}}_{\mathrm{ref}}& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

(36) Converting eq. (3) to dB yields:

(37) $\begin{array}{cc}{\left({\mathrm{SINR}}_{\mathrm{inst}}\right)}_{dB}={\left(\frac{{}_{\mathrm{inst}}}{{}_{\mathrm{ref}}}\right)}_{dB}-{\left(\frac{K_{\mathrm{inst}}}{K_{\mathrm{ref}}}\right)}_{dB}+{\left({\mathrm{SINR}}_{\mathrm{ref}}\right)}_{dB}& \left(4\right)\end{array}$

(38) Thus. the instantaneous SINR in dB scales linearly with both power and code adjustments. and with scaling slopes 1 and 1, respectively.

(39) In the PARC case, the SIC-GRAKE Output SINR for the m:th stream can be shown as

(40) $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{SINR}\left(m\right)=\frac{\left(m\right)}{K}{h}^H\left(m\right)R^{-1}\left(m\right)h\left(m\right)& \left(5\right)\end{array}$
where (m) is the power allocated to MIMO channels on antenna (or data stream) m, K is the number of MIMO channelization codes, and h(m) and R(m) are respectively, the net response and noise covariance for the m:th stream. The noise covariance for the m:th decoded stream can be expressed as [3]
R(m)=R.sub.cpich+R.sub.CR(m)R.sub.SIC(m)(6)
where R.sub.cpich is the noise covariance measured from the CPICH, R.sub.cr is contributed by code-reuse interference, and R.sub.sic(m) accounts for the interference removed during the SIC process prior to the m:th decoding stage. The code-reuse term R.sub.cr is given as

(41) $\begin{array}{cc}{R}_{\mathrm{CR}}\left(m\right)=\frac{}{K}\underset{n=m+1}{\overset{M}{.Math.}}h\left(n\right)h^H\left(n\right)& \left(7\right)\end{array}$

(42) Wherein it is assumed that the MIMO power is evenly distributed across active transmit antennas, (1)=(2)==(M)=, where M is the total base station power allocated to the MIMO user of interest, and /K is the power per MIMO code, per active transmit antenna. It should be noted that R.sub.cr depends on power and code allocations. Furthermore, the term R.sub.sic(m) also depends on MIMO power allocation because SIC is applied to own MIMO signals only. These two factors impact the SINR scaling issue significantly because in this case SINR(m) depends on K and in a more convoluted manner,

(43) $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{SINR}\left(m\right)=\frac{}{K}{h}^H\left(m\right)R^{-1}\left(m,,K\right)h\left(m\right)& \left(8\right)\end{array}$

(44) In this case, SINR scaling is much more complicated than what equation (3) indicates. Thus, for the PARC case, it is beneficial to signal the code and power availability to the user equipment. This way there is no need to further scale the reported CQI. Or, the error introduced in the SINR scaling step can be minimized if there is a change in instantaneous code and power availability since the last time such information is provided. Using the method of the invention, code and power allocation can be signaled by selecting the pilot symbol patterns to be transmitted by antennas 3 and 4. For example, using a scheme as described in Table 1, 4 bits of control information can be signaled. The base station can use these 4 bits to signal 16 different code allocations, or 16 different power allocations, and 16 different combinations of code and power allocation.

(45) The method and arrangement according to the invention have been described primarily with reference to MIMO-based systems. It should be noted that the method and arrangement equally well may be utilized also in other communication systems utilizing a plurality of radio paths for the communication between radio nodes, for example cooperative relaying system.

(46) The method and arrangement according to the invention have been described primarily with reference to a CDMA system. It should be noted that the method and arrangement equally well may be utilized also in systems utilizing other access technologies such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).

(47) While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements as defined by the appended claims.