Method for antenna port indication and apparatus

1. A communication method comprising:

receiving, by a terminal from a base station, information indicating an antenna port set of pilots used for data demodulation, wherein the pilots comprise a pilot for the terminal and a pilot for another terminal;

determining, by the terminal and according to the received information, a ratio of energy per resource element (EPRE) of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to EPRE of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the PDSCH;

determining, by the terminal, the antenna port set based on the received information, wherein a pilot location for the antenna port set is not used for data transmission;

determining, by the terminal, an unused pilot location other than the pilot location according to a pilot pattern, wherein the pilot pattern is associated with a quantity of antenna ports supported by the base station; and

receiving, by the terminal, data at the unused pilot location.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the information comprises an identity of the antenna port set of the pilots.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna port set comprises resources corresponding to the antenna port set.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the information is received through downlink control information (DCI).

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein a field in the DCI implicitly indicates the information.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the terminal, data to the base station at a pilot location corresponding to an antenna port other than any antenna port included in the antenna port set.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the data transmitted by the terminal does not occupy a resource corresponding to an antenna port that is used by the another terminal and that is in the antenna port set.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the terminal, pilots at all pilot locations corresponding to all antenna ports in the antenna port set, wherein the pilots have total power for the antenna port set.

9. The method according to claim 1 , including receiving, by the terminal, the DMRS on one or more antenna ports in the antenna port set.

10. A communication apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a storage medium coupled to the one or more processors and configured to store computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:

receive, from a base station, information indicating an antenna port set of pilots used for data demodulation, wherein the pilots comprise a pilot for the communication apparatus and a pilot for another communication apparatus;

determine, according to the received information, a ratio of energy per resource element (EPRE) of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to EPRE of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the PDSCH;

determine the antenna port set based on the received information, wherein a pilot location for the antenna port set is not used for data transmission;

determine an unused pilot location other than the pilot location according to a pilot pattern, wherein the pilot pattern is associated with a quantity of antenna ports supported by the base station; and

receive data at the unused pilot location.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the information comprises an identity of the antenna port set of the pilots.

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the antenna port set comprises resources corresponding to the antenna port set.

13. The communication apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the storage medium is further configured to store computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to receive the DMRS on one or more antenna ports in the antenna port set.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium stores instructions that are executable by a computer, and the instructions comprise instructions for:

receiving, from a base station, information indicating an antenna port set of pilots used for data demodulation, wherein the pilots comprise a pilot for a terminal and a pilot for another terminal;

determining, according to the information, a ratio of energy per resource element (EPRE) of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to EPRE of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the PDSCH;

determining the antenna port set based on the information, wherein a pilot location for the antenna port set is not used for data transmission;

determining an unused pilot location other than the pilot location according to a pilot pattern, wherein the pilot pattern is associated with a quantity of antenna ports supported by the base station; and

receiving data at the unused pilot location.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , wherein the information comprises an identity of the antenna port set of the pilots.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for receiving the DMRS on one or more antenna ports in the antenna port set.