Method and system for operating a multi-user multiple-input multiple output (MU-MIMO) wireless communications system

1. A method performed by a mobile station operative in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

generating inter-cell interference information, wherein generating the inter-cell interference information comprises calculating a mean value and a standard deviation for multiple signals that are received at the mobile station, making signal measurements at the mobile station, and selecting an index from a codebook in response to the signal measurements, wherein the index is representative of the measured signals, and

transmitting the inter-cell interference information to a base station for the calculation, at the base station, of a channel quality indicator (CQI) based on the inter-cell interference information, wherein the inter-cell interference information provides to the base station includes the mean value, standard deviation, and the selected index.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the codebook from the base station, wherein the codebook defines multiple indexes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the inter-cell interference information comprises making signal measurements at the mobile station, calculating mean values in response to the signal measurements, calculating standard deviations in response to the signal measurements, and selecting an index from a codebook in response to the signal measurements.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising providing the mean values and the standard deviations to the base station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which the index is provided to the base station.

5. A method performed by a base station usable in a wireless communications system, comprising:

receiving inter-cell interference information from at least one mobile station;

calculating a channel quality indicator (CQI) for a mobile station using the inter-cell interference information received from the mobile station, wherein the CQI is calculated at the base station using equivalent channel matrix information and usage scheme information for spatial sub-channels in addition to the inter-cell interference information that is received from the at least one mobile station;

making a scheduling decision in response to the CQI; and

transmitting data to the mobile station according to the scheduling decision.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, at the base station, receiving mean values and standard deviations from the mobile station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which an index is provided to the base station.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising, at the base station, calculating a CQI related to the mobile station for various usage schemes and making a scheduling decision in response to the calculated CQIs.

8. A method performed by a mobile station usable in a wireless communications system, the method comprising:

receiving and measuring multiple incoming signals;

generating inter-cell interference information, wherein generating inter-cell interference information comprises calculating a mean value and a standard deviation for the received signals, selecting an index from a codebook in response to the received signals; and

transmitting the inter-cell interference information to the base station for use in calculating a channel quality indicator (CQI) at the base station, wherein the mean value and the standard deviation are transmitted to the base station at an interval that is longer than an interval at which the index is transmitted to the base station.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing a codebook.