Signaling of measurement signals based on a tree structure

1. A method for controlling the measurement of channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS) elements in a wireless communication network, the method comprising, in one or more nodes of the wireless communication network:

transmitting CSI-RS symbols in each of one or more of N CSI-RS elements, each CSI-RS element in the set corresponding to at least one resource element in a time-frequency grid of resource elements;

selecting, from the N CSI-RS elements, a first set of CSI-RS elements to be measured by a first wireless device, the first set comprising one or several of the N CSI-RS elements;

transmitting, to the first wireless device, a message comprising a first K-bit indicator identifying the first set of CSI-RS elements, wherein K<N; and

receiving, from the first wireless device, in response to the message, a measurement report corresponding to at least one of the first set of CSI-RS elements,

wherein the first K-bit indicator is one of a predetermined set of K-bit indicators, where each member of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely corresponds to a CSI-RS element or group of CSI-RS elements from among the N CSI-RS, according to a predetermined mapping, such that each member of a first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely indicates a single one of the N CSI-RS elements, the first subset comprising N indicators, and such that each member of a second subset of the predetermined indicators uniquely indicates a predetermined group of two or more of the N CSI-RS elements.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein K>ceil(log 2 N) or K=ceil(log 2 N)+1.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the N CSI-RS elements comprises a pair of resource elements in an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) resource element grid, and wherein transmitting CSI-RS symbols in each of one or more of the predetermined set of N CSI-RS elements comprises transmitting in one of the pair of resource elements with a first antenna polarization and transmitting in the other of the pair of resource elements with a second antenna polarization, the second antenna polarization being substantially orthogonal to the first.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting CSI-RS symbols in each of the one or more of the N CSI-RS elements comprises transmitting a beamformed CSI-RS symbol in at least one of the CSI-RS elements.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein transmitting CSI-RS symbols in each of the one or more of the N CSI-RS elements comprises transmitting beamformed CSI-RS symbols in each of the N CSI-RS elements, such that each CSI-RS element corresponds to a different transmit beam.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises selecting N transmit beams from a set of B available beams, where B>N, and wherein each CSI-RS element corresponds to a different one of the selected transmit beams.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein selecting the N transmit beams is based on previously received measurement reports, and wherein the selected beams include at least one beam from each of a plurality of angularly spaced apart primary beam directions, the primary directions being determined from the previously received measurement reports.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators consists of N indicators, each uniquely indicating a single one of the N CSI-RS elements.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein N is a power of 2, and K=log 2 N+1.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators consists of N indicators, each uniquely indicating a single one of the N CSI-RS elements, and wherein the second subset includes N/2 indicators that each uniquely identify a group of two CSI-RS elements from the N CSI-RS elements.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein K>8 and wherein the second subset further includes N/4 indicators that each uniquely identify a group of four CSI-RS elements from the N CSI-RS elements.

12. A method for measuring channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS) elements in a wireless communication network, the method comprising, in a wireless device:

receiving, from the wireless communication network, a message comprising a first K-bit indicator;

using the first K-bit indicator to identify a first set of CSI-RS elements from a set of N CSI-RS elements, wherein each CSI-RS element corresponds to at least one resource element in a time-frequency grid of resource elements and wherein K<N;

performing measurements on the identified first set of CSI-RS elements; and

sending, to the wireless communications network, a measurement report corresponding to at least one of the first set of CSI-RS elements;

wherein the first K-bit indicator is one of a predetermined set of K-bit indicators, where each member of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely corresponds to a CSI-RS element or group of CSI-RS elements from among the N CSI-RS, according to a predetermined mapping, such that each member of a first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely indicates a single one of the N CSI-RS elements and such that each member of a second subset of the predetermined indicators uniquely indicates a predetermined group of two or more of the N CSI-RS elements, wherein the first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators consists of N indicators, each uniquely indicating a single one of the N CSI-RS elements.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein K>ceil(log 2 N) or K=ceil(log 2 N)+1.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein each of the N CSI-RS elements comprises a pair of resource elements in an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) resource element grid, and wherein, for each CSI-RS element a CSI-RS symbol is transmitted in one of the pair of resource elements with a first antenna polarization and a CSI-RS is transmitted in the other of the pair of resource elements with a second antenna polarization, the second antenna polarization being substantially orthogonal to the first, and wherein performing measurements on the identified first set of CSI-RS elements comprises, for each CSI-RS element, combining measurements of the pair of resource elements.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein N is a power of 2, and K=log 2 N+1.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators consists of N indicators, each uniquely indicating a single one of the N CSI-RS elements, and wherein the second subset includes N/2 indicators that each uniquely identify a group of two CSI-RS elements from the N CSI-RS elements.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein K≥8 and wherein the second subset further includes N/4 indicators that each uniquely identify a group of four CSI-RS elements from the N CSI-RS elements.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second subset includes one indicator that indicates that all N CSI-RS elements are to be measured.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the message comprising the K-bit indicator is a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises including, in the measurement report sent to the wireless communications network, an M-bit indicator indicating one of the CSI-RS elements in the first set of CSI-RS elements, where M equals ceil(log 2 S) and S equals the number of members in the first set of CSI-RS elements.

21. The method of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises including, in the measurement report sent to the wireless communications network, an M-bit indicator indicating one of the CSI-RS elements in the first set of CSI-RS elements, where M equals ceil(log 2 S MAX ) and MAX equals the maximum number of members in any one of the predetermined groups of two or more of the N CSI-RS elements that can be indicated with the predetermined set of K-bit indicators.

22. The method of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises including, in the measurement report sent to the wireless communications network, measurement data for Q of the CSI-RS elements, where 1<Q<S, S being the number of members in the first set of CSI-RS elements, and further including in the measurement report an indicator identifying which Q of the S members in the first of CSI-RS elements are represented in the measurement report.

23. One or more nodes of a wireless communication network configured to control the measurement of channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS) elements in the wireless communication network, comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:

transmit CSI-RS symbols in each of one or more of N CSI-RS elements, each CSI-RS element in the set corresponding to at least one resource element in a time-frequency grid of resource elements;

select, from the N CSI-RS elements, a first set of CSI-RS elements to be measured by a first wireless device, the first set comprising one or several of the N CSI-RS elements;

transmit, to the first wireless device, a message comprising a first K-bit indicator identifying the first set of CSI-RS elements, wherein K<N; and

receive, from the first wireless device, in response to the message, a measurement report corresponding to at least one of the first set of CSI-RS elements;

wherein the first K-bit indicator is one of a predetermined set of K-bit indicators, where each member of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely corresponds to a CSI-RS element or group of CSI-RS elements from among the N CSI-RS, according to a predetermined mapping, such that each member of a first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely indicates a single one of the N CSI-RS elements, the first subset comprising N indicators, and such that each member of a second subset of the predetermined indicators uniquely indicates a predetermined group of two or more of the N CSI-RS elements.

24. A wireless device configured to measure channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS) elements in a wireless communication network, comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:

receive, from the wireless communication network, a message comprising a first K-bit indicator;

use the first K-bit indicator to identify a first set of CSI-RS from N CSI-RS elements, wherein each CSI-RS element corresponds to at least one resource element in a time-frequency grid of resource elements and wherein K<N;

perform measurements on the identified first set of CSI-RS elements; and

send, to the wireless communications network, a measurement report corresponding to at least one of the first set of CSI-RS elements;

wherein the first K-bit indicator is one of a predetermined set of K-bit indicators, where each member of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely corresponds to a CSI-RS element or group of CSI-RS elements from among the N CSI-RS, according to a predetermined mapping, such that each member of a first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators uniquely indicates a single one of the N CSI-RS elements and such that each member of a second subset of the predetermined indicators uniquely indicates a predetermined group of two or more of the N CSI-RS elements, wherein the first subset of the predetermined set of K-bit indicators consists of N indicators, each uniquely indicating a single one of the N CSI-RS elements.