Method of receiving a signal in a wireless communication network and associated network elements

1. A method of receiving a signal in a wireless communication network, comprising:

determining, at a network element, a first filter component based on reference sequences for user equipments in a first set;

determining a second filter component, the second filter component being based on a plurality of received signals and having estimated contributions to the plurality of received signals by the user equipments in the first set removed, the plurality of received signals being associated with a plurality of antennas;

filtering a selected received signal based on the first and second filter components to obtain an estimated signal for a selected user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining a first filter component comprises:

determining channel estimates based on the reference sequences for the user equipments in the first set except for the selected user equipment; and

determining the first filter component based on the channel estimates.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining the first filter component determines the first filter component based on (i) the channel estimates and (ii) transmission powers for the user equipments in the first set except for the selected user equipment.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network element is a serving base station serving the selected user equipment, and one or more of the plurality of antennas is associated with one or more sectors of the serving base station.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein one or more of the plurality of antennas is associated with one or more sectors of one or more other base stations.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

receiving, at the serving base station, one or more of the plurality of received signals from the one or more other base stations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining a first filter component comprises:

determining channel estimates associated with the user equipments in the first set based on the reference sequences; and

determining the first filter component based on the channel estimates.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining the first filter component determines the first filter component based on the channel estimates and transmission powers for the user equipments in the first set.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the network element is a central unit associated with the plurality of antennas, and one or more of the plurality of antennas is associated with one or more sectors of a cell site.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein one or more of the plurality of antennas is associated with one or more sectors of one or more other cell sites.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

receiving, at the central unit, the plurality of received signals.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein

the network element is a central unit associated with a plurality of base stations, one or more of the plurality of antennas associated with the plurality of base stations;

the determining a first filter component and the determining a second filter component are performed at the central unit; and

the filtering includes,

determining, at the central unit, a filter for the selected user equipment; and

sending, from the central unit, the determined filter to one of the plurality of base stations serving the selected user equipment; and

filtering, at the serving base station, the selected received signal based on the determined filter to obtain the estimated signal for the selected user equipment.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining a second filter component comprises:

for each antenna in the plurality of antennas,

removing the estimated contributions of the user equipments in the first set from the received signal associated with the antenna to obtain a modified signal.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

processing the modified signal to obtain a result;

accumulating the results; and

averaging the accumulated results to obtain the second filter component.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining a second filter component comprises:

for each antenna in the plurality of antennas,

removing the estimated contributions of the user equipments in the first set except for the selected user equipment from the received signal associated with the antenna to obtain a modified signal.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering comprises:

determining a channel estimate associated with the selected user equipment based on a reference sequence associated with the selected user equipment; and

filtering the selected received signal based on the channel estimate and the first and second filter components.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the filtering filters the selected received signal based on a transmission power of the selected user equipment, the channel estimate, and the first and second filter components.

18. A network element, comprising:

a memory configured to store reference sequences for user equipments in a first set;

a processor configured to determine a first filter component based on the reference sequences for user equipments in the first set;

the processor configured to determine a second filter component, the second filter component being based on a plurality of received signals and having estimated contributions to the plurality of received signals by the user equipments in the first set removed, the plurality of received signals being associated with a plurality of antennas; and

the processor configured to determine a filter based on the first and second filter components, the filter for obtaining an estimated signal for a selected user equipment.

19. The network element of claim 18 , wherein the processor is configured to filter a selected cluster of the plurality of received signals using the filter to obtain the estimated signal for the selected user equipment.

20. The network element of claim 18 , wherein the processor is configured to output the filter to another network element.