Antenna virtualization in a wireless communication environment

1. A method that facilitates implementing antenna virtualization in a wireless communication environment, the method comprising:

partitioning a set of physical transmit antennas into a plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas;

advertising a number of virtual antennas corresponding to a number of the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas to a legacy UE;

advertising a number of physical transmit antennas in the set of physical transmit antennas to a non-legacy UE;

formulating a precoding vector for a particular group of physical transmit antennas from the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, the particular group of physical transmit antennas forms a particular virtual antenna; and

applying the precoding vector to a signal for transmission over the particular virtual antenna.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of physical transmit antennas includes T physical transmit antennas, and the set of the T physical transmit antennas is partitioned into L groups of physical transmit antennas, wherein T is an integer and L is an integer less than or equal to T.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein L precoding vectors corresponding to L virtual antennas are formulated.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

formulating a disparate precoding vector for a disparate group of physical transmit antennas from the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, the disparate group of physical transmit antennas forms a disparate virtual antenna; and

applying the disparate precoding vector to a disparate signal for transmission over the disparate virtual antenna.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein information related to antenna virtualization is transparent to the UEs.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the precoding vector is a unit norm vector.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the precoding vector is a unit norm vector with non-zero entries corresponding to physical transmit antennas in the particular group that participate in the particular virtual antenna.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the precoding vector is a particular column of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix, wherein a disparate column of the DFT matrix is utilized for a disparate virtual antenna.

9. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that retains instructions related to partitioning a set of physical transmit antennas into a plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, advertising a number of virtual antennas corresponding to a number of the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas to a legacy UE, advertising a number of physical transmit antennas in the set of physical transmit antennas to a non-legacy UE, generating a precoding vector for a particular group of physical transmit antennas from the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, wherein the particular group of physical transmit antennas forms a particular virtual antenna, and applying the precoding vector to a signal for transmission over the particular virtual antenna; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, configured to execute the instructions retained in the memory.

10. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9 , wherein information related to antenna virtualization is transparent to a receiving wireless communication apparatus.

11. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory further retains instructions related to selecting a number of virtual antennas to form, wherein the number of virtual antennas is a number of the groups into which the set of physical transmit antennas is partitioned, and selecting the precoding vector for the particular group.

12. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the precoding vector is a unit norm vector with non-zero entries corresponding to physical transmit antennas in the particular group that participate in the particular virtual antenna.

13. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the non-zero entries in the precoding vector are constant.

14. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the non-zero entries in the precoding vector are at least one of frequency dependent or time dependent.

15. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the precoding vector is a particular column of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix, wherein a disparate column of the DFT matrix is utilized for a disparate virtual antenna.

16. A wireless communications apparatus that enables effectuating antenna virtualization in a wireless communication environment, comprising:

means for partitioning a set of physical transmit antennas into a plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, each of the groups corresponds to a respective virtual antenna;

means for advertising a number of the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas to a legacy UE;

means for advertising a number of physical transmit antennas in the set of physical transmit antennas to a non-legacy UE;

means for generating respective precoding vectors for the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas; and

means for implementing precoding upon signals for transmission using the respective precoding vectors.

17. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the respective precoding vectors are respective unit norm vectors.

18. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the respective precoding vectors are respective columns of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix.

19. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16 , wherein information related to antenna virtualization is transparent to a receiving wireless communication apparatus.

20. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising:

code for partitioning a set of physical transmit antennas into a plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, each of the groups corresponds to a respective virtual antenna;

code for advertising a number of the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas to a legacy UE;

code for advertising a number of physical transmit antennas in the set of physical transmit antennas to a non-legacy UE;

code for generating respective precoding vectors for the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas; and

code for implementing precoding upon signals for transmission using the respective precoding vectors.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein the respective precoding vectors are respective unit norm vectors with non-zero entries corresponding to physical transmit antennas that respectively form each respective virtual antenna.

22. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein the respective precoding vectors are respective columns of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix.

23. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein information related to antenna virtualization is transparent to a receiving wireless communication apparatus.

24. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to:

partition a set of physical transmit antennas into a plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas;

advertise a number of virtual antennas corresponding to a number of the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas to a legacy UE;

advertise a number of physical transmit antennas in the set of physical transmit antennas to a non-legacy UE;

formulate a precoding vector for a particular group of physical transmit antennas from the plurality of groups of physical transmit antennas, the particular group of physical transmit antennas forms a particular virtual antenna; and

apply the precoding vector to a signal for transmission over the particular virtual antenna.