Channel quality estimation for link adaptation within interference limited systems

1. A method of wireless signal processing performed at a receiver in a wireless cellular communication network, comprising:

receiving, by a wireless receiver, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal;

estimating, a component of the received OFDM signal corresponding to a serving cell transmission;

generating a noise and interference estimate by subtracting the component from the received OFDM signal;

producing a normalized noise signal by whitening the noise and interference estimate;

detecting interference information from the normalized noise signal and associating, with the interference information, corresponding reliability information indicating reliability of the interference information;

performing interference cancellation based on the interference information; and

adaptively adjusting a performance indicator indicative of an accuracy of the interference cancellation using the reliability information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of interference information comprises using a blind detection algorithm.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the blind detection algorithm uses Maximum Likelihood (ML) classification.

4. The method of claim 1 , further including:

generating the reliability information based on modulation schemes and transmission modes of the receiver.

5. The method of claim 4 , further including:

generating at least three metrics as the reliability information for each of the modulation schemes and the transmission modes.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performance indicator comprises an SINR gain factor.

7. The method of claim 6 , further including:

pre-calculating and pre-storing the SINR gain factor in a lookup table.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the SINR gain factor is used in SINR calculation for a Maximum Likelihood Detector (MLD).

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the SINR calculation for the MLD is further decided by a lower bound and an upper bound of SINR values.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

reporting Channel Quality Information (CQI) based on the performance indicator, and

performing Link Adaptation (LA) based on the reporting of CQI.

11. A wireless receiver apparatus, comprising:

a receiver circuit that receives an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal; and

a processor that processes the received OFDM signal by:

estimating, a component of the received OFDM signal corresponding to a serving cell transmission;

generating a noise and interference estimate by subtracting the component from the received OFDM signal;

producing a normalized noise signal by whitening the noise and interference estimate;

detecting interference information from the normalized noise signal and associating, with the interference information, corresponding reliability information indicating reliability of the interference information;

performing interference cancellation based on the interference information; and

adaptively adjusting a performance indicator indicative of an accuracy of the interference cancellation using the reliability information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the detecting of interference information comprises using a blind detection algorithm.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the blind detection algorithm uses Maximum Likelihood (ML) classification.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the reliability information is generated based on modulation schemes and transmission modes of the receiver.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein at least three metrics are generated as the reliability information for each of the modulation schemes and the transmission modes.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the performance indicator comprises a SINR gain factor.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the SINR gain factor is pre-calculated and stored in a lookup table.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the SINR gain factor is used in SINR calculation for Maximum Likelihood Detector (MLD).

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the SINR calculation for MLD is further decided by a lower bound and an upper bound of SINR values.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further configured to process the received OFDM signal by:

reporting Channel Quality Information (CQI) based on the performance indicator, and

performing Link Adaptation (LA) based on the reporting of CQI.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable program medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method comprising:

receiving, by a wireless receiver, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal;

estimating, a component of the received OFDM signal corresponding to a serving cell transmission;

generating a noise and interference estimate by subtracting the component from the received OFDM signal;

producing a normalized noise signal by whitening the noise and interference estimate;

detecting interference information from the normalized noise signal and associating, with the interference information, corresponding reliability information indicating reliability of the interference information;

performing interference cancellation based on the interference information; and

adaptively adjusting a performance indicator indicative of an accuracy of the interference cancellation using the reliability information.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 21 , wherein the detecting of interference information comprises using a blind detection algorithm.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 22 , wherein the blind detection algorithm uses Maximum Likelihood (ML) classification.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 21 , wherein the method further comprises:

generating the reliability information based on modulation schemes and transmission modes of the receiver.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 24 , wherein the method further comprises:

generating at least three metrics as the reliability information for each of the modulation schemes and the transmission modes.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 21 , wherein the performance indicator comprises an SINR gain factor.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 26 , wherein the method further comprises:

pre-calculating and pre-storing the SINR gain factor in a lookup table.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 26 , wherein the SINR gain factor is used in SINR calculation for a Maximum Likelihood Detector (MLD).

29. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 28 , wherein the SINR calculation for the MLD is further decided by a lower bound and an upper bound of SINR values.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable program medium of claim 21 , wherein the method further comprises:

reporting Channel Quality Information (CQI) based on the performance indicator, and

performing Link Adaptation (LA) based on the reporting of CQI.