Signaling methods and apparatus for advanced MIMO communication systems

1. A user equipment (UE) capable of communicating with a base station (BS), the UE comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports; and

a controller configured to derive a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) by utilizing the CSI-RS,

wherein the transceiver is further configured to report the CRI to the base station,

wherein, when the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one, a reporting interval of the CRI reporting by the transceiver to the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,CRI )mod( N pd ·M CRI )=0,

where n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the CRI reporting by the transceiver to the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of M CRI ·N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI )mod( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI )=0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, and M RI is a positive number.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one when only CRI is reported.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of the maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and a maximum of reported UE downlink MIMO capabilities for a same band in a corresponding band combination.

4. The UE of claim 3 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is not included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of a maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and ue-Category (without suffix).

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the UE configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and with a quasi co-location type B, is not expected to receive CSI-RS resource configurations with different qcl-CRS-Info-r11 for the CSI process.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the CRI functions as a beam selection indicator (BI).

7. A user equipment (UE) capable of communicating with a base station (BS), the UE comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports; and

a controller configured to derive a rank indicator (RI) by utilizing the CSI-RS,

wherein the transceiver is further configured to report the RI to the base station,

wherein, when only RI reporting is configured, a reporting interval of the RI reporting by the transceiver to the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI )mod( N pd ·M RI )=0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, and N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the RI reporting by the transceiver to the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of M RI ·N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI )mod( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI )=0,

where N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and M CRI is a positive number.

8. A base station capable of communicating with a user equipment (UE), the base station comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports;

a receiver configured to receive a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) derived by utilizing the plurality of CSI-RS resources; and

a controller configured to identify a precoder matrix according to a codebook based on the CRI,

wherein, when the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one, a reporting interval of CRI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 −N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M CRI ) =0,

where n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the CRI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of M CRI ·N pd subframes, with reporting instances for CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, and M RI is a positive number.

9. The BS of claim 8 , wherein when the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one when only the CRI is reported.

10. The BS of claim 8 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of the maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and a maximum of reported UE downlink MIMO capabilities for a same band in a corresponding band combination.

11. The BS of claim 10 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is not included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of a maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and ue-Category (without suffix).

12. The BS of claim 8 , wherein the UE configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and with a quasi co-location type B, is not expected to receive CSI-RS resource configurations with different qcl-CRS-Info-r11 for the CSI process.

13. The BS of claim 8 , wherein the CRI functions as a beam selection indicator (BI).

14. A base station (BS) capable of communicating with a user equipment (UE), the BS comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports;

a receiver configured to receive a rank indicator (RI) derived by utilizing the plurality of CSI-RS resources; and

a controller configured to identify a precoder matrix according to a codebook based on the RI,

wherein, when only RI reporting is configured, a reporting interval of the RI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI ) mod ( N pd ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, and N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the RI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of M RI ·N pd subframes, with the reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and M CRI is a positive number.

15. Presented) A method for communicating with a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

transmitting a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports;

receiving a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) derived by utilizing the plurality of CSI-RS resources; and

identifying a precoder matrix according to a codebook based on the CRI,

wherein, when the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one, a reporting interval of CRI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M CRI ) =0,

where n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the CRI reporting received the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of M CRI ·N pd subframes, with reporting instances for CRI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, and M RI is a positive number.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein when the number of antenna ports in each configured CSI-RS resource is one when only the CRI is reported.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of the maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and a maximum of reported UE downlink MIMO capabilities for a same band in a corresponding band combination.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein when the UE is configured with a Class B CSI reporting and a supportedMIMO-CapabilityDL-r10 field is not included in a UE-EUTRA-Capability, a maximum number of layers for each CSI process is determined according to a minimum of a maximum of number of antenna port of the configured CSI-RS resources in that CSI process and ue-Category (without suffix).

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the UE configured with a Class B CSI reporting, and with a quasi co-location type B, is not expected to receive CSI-RS resource configurations with different qcl-CRS-Info-r11 for the CSI process.

20. A method for communicating with a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

transmitting a signal comprising a channel state information (CSI) process configuration, wherein the CSI process configuration comprises a CSI-RS resource configuration to identify a plurality of CSI-RS resources, each CSI-RS resource configured with a number of antenna ports;

receiving a rank indicator (RI) derived by utilizing the plurality of CSI-RS resources; and

identifying a precoder matrix according to a codebook based on the RI,

wherein, when only RI reporting is configured, a reporting interval of the RI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M RI of a period of N pd subframes, with reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI ) mod ( N pd ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,RI is a positive integer, n f is a radio frame number, n s is a slot number, and N OFFSET,CQI is a positive integer, and

wherein otherwise the reporting interval of the RI reporting received by the base station is an integer multiple M CRI of a period of M RI ·N pd subframes, with the reporting instances for the RI reporting being subframes satisfying:

(10 ×n f +└n s /2 ┘−N OFFSET,CQI −N OFFSET,RI −N OFFSET,CRI ) mod ( N pd ·M RI ·M CRI ) =0,

where N OFFSET,CRI is a positive integer, and M CRI is a positive number.