Device and method of enhancing downlink UE-specific demodulation reference signal to facilitate inter-cell interference cancellation and suppression

1. A method for cancelling interference received at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

receiving a first signal from a serving base station transmitted on a first antenna port, the first signal comprising a first demodulation reference signal (DRMS);

receiving an interfering signal from a neighboring base station transmitted on a second antenna port, the interfering signal comprising a second DMRS coded orthogonally different from the first signal;

determining a cell identification of the neighboring base station;

identifying the second antenna port in accordance with a predefined mapping between a plurality of cell identifications and antenna ports;

recovering DMRS information of the interfering signal from the second DMRS using the identified second antenna port; and

performing interference cancellation on the first signal and the second signal using the recovered DMRS information of the interfering signal.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein determining the cell identification comprises identifying the neighboring base station through detecting a downlink synchronization signal.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein signaling the rate matching information through semi-static high-layer signaling or through dynamic DCI signaling.

4. The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein determining the cell identification further comprises:

measuring signal power of the interfering signal of the identified cell; and

determining the cell identification in response to the measured signal power satisfying a threshold value.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the predefined mapping is in accordance with information mapping each physical cell identification (PCID) of each base station in a group of neighboring base stations with one or more antenna ports assigned to the respective base station.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5 , wherein the predefined mapping is received via a transmission within a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of the serving base station.

7. The method in accordance with claim 5 , wherein the predefined mapping is determined according to a default association between the PCID of each base station and a respective one or more antenna ports.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving rate matching information from the serving base station; and

recovering the DMRS information of the interfering signal from the second DMRS using the identified second antenna port and the received rate matching information.

9. A method for interference cancellation at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

obtaining information mapping each physical cell identification (PCID) of each base station in a group of neighboring base stations with one or more antenna ports assigned to the respective base station;

receiving a desired signal from a serving base station;

receiving an interfering signal from a neighboring base station;

identifying a PCID of the neighboring base station;

determining from the identified PCID the one or more antenna ports associated with the neighboring base station;

based at least in part on the determined one or more antenna ports, recovering demodulation reference signal (DMRS) information carried in the interfering signal; and

performing interference cancellation on the desired signal and the interfering signal using the recovered DMRS information of the interfering signal.

10. The method in accordance with claim 9 , wherein the information mapping each PCID with one or more antenna ports is obtained via a transmission within a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of the serving base station.

11. The method in accordance with claim 9 , wherein the information mapping each PCID with one or more antenna ports is obtained in accordance with a default association between the PCID of each base station and a respective one or more antenna ports.

12. The method in accordance with claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving rate matching information from the serving base station; and

recovering the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) information carried in the interfering signal based at least in part on the determined one or more antenna ports and the received rate matching information.

13. A method for facilitating inter-cell interference in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

assigning a set of antenna ports to each of a first base station and a plurality of coordinating neighboring base stations for transmission of user equipment-specific reference signals (UE-RS) according to the assigned antenna ports, each assigned antenna port different from each other;

assigning a common DMRS scrambling identity to the first base station and the plurality of coordinating neighboring base stations;

generating an association between the respective assigned set of antenna ports and the first base station and plurality of coordinating neighboring base stations; and

transmitting the association and the common scrambling identity to at least one UE within the coordinating base stations for use in an inter-cell interference process.

14. The method in accordance with claim 13 wherein the association maps physical cell identifications of the first base station and the plurality of coordinating neighboring base stations with the assigned antenna ports.

15. The method in accordance with claim 14 wherein the UE-RS comprises a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

16. The method in accordance with claim 13 further comprising:

transmitting the association and common scrambling identity to the at least one UE from the first base station.

17. The method in accordance with claim 13 wherein a set of assigned antenna ports comprises at least two.

18. A method for facilitating inter-cell interference in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

assigning, according to a default association, a set of ports to each of a first base station and a plurality of coordinating neighboring base stations for transmission of user equipment-specific reference signals (UE-RS) according to the assigned antenna ports, each assigned antenna port different from each other;

transmitting the UE-RS according to the assigned set of ports from the first base station to at least one user equipment (UE) located within a region served by the first base station; and

transmitting the UE-RS according to the assigned port from at least one of the plurality of neighboring base stations.

19. The method in accordance with claim 18 wherein the UE-RS comprises a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

20. The method in accordance with claim 18 , further comprising:

transmitting rate matching information from the first base station to the UE indicating which set of ports the UE is to use to perform rate matching.