Infrastructure equipment, communications device and methods

1. An infrastructure equipment for a mobile communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit signals to one or more terminal devices via a wireless access interface comprising a plurality of antenna ports; and

a controller configured to

control the transmitter to transmit the signals to the one or more terminal devices, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit a plurality of physical resource blocks to the one or more communications devices, wherein a same beamforming weight vector is applied to one of the antenna ports for at least a subset of the plurality of physical resource blocks; and

control the transmitter to transmit mapping information to the one or more terminal devices, the mapping information informing the terminal device that a plurality of the antenna ports and/or physical resource blocks have a common beamforming weight vector.

2. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein

the mapping information is transmitted using one of a master information block or a system information block.

3. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein

the mapping information is type information.

4. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein

the controller is configured to control the transmitter to transmit a plurality of physical resource blocks at a first frequency and the same beamforming weight vector is applied to the antenna port for a subset of the plurality of physical resource blocks.

5. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 4 , wherein

the controller is configured to control the transmitter to change the frequency from the first frequency to a second frequency and to transmit a further plurality of physical resource blocks at the second frequency.

6. A terminal device used for communicating with a wireless communication network, the terminal device comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive one or more signals from the wireless communication network via a plurality of antenna ports, wherein the signals comprise a plurality of physical resource blocks and a same beamforming weight vector is applied to at least a subset of the received plurality of physical resource blocks; and

a controller configured to instruct the transceiver to receive mapping information from the wireless communication network, the mapping information informing the terminal device that a plurality of the antenna ports and/or physical resource blocks have a common beamforming weight vector.

7. The terminal device according to claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to:

decode the received physical resource blocks using a first mapping of weight vectors to physical resource blocks on one of the antenna ports; and

decode received physical resource blocks using a second mapping of weight vectors to physical resource blocks on a second antenna port; and

transmit the preferred mapping to the wireless communication network.

8. The terminal device according to claim 6 , wherein

the mapping information is received in one of a master information block or a system information block.

9. The terminal device according to claim 6 , wherein

the mapping information is type information.

10. The terminal device according to claim 6 , wherein

the controller is configured to control the transceiver to receive a plurality of physical resource blocks at a first frequency and the same beamforming weight vector is applied to the antenna port for a subset of the plurality of physical resource blocks.

11. The terminal device according to claim 10 , wherein

the controller is configured to control the transceiver to change the frequency from the first frequency to a second frequency and to receive a further plurality of physical resource blocks at the second frequency.

12. A method of operating a terminal device used for communicating with a wireless communication network, the terminal device comprising a transceiver, wherein the method comprises:

receiving one or more signals from the wireless communication network via terminal plurality of antenna ports, and wherein the signals comprise a plurality of physical resource blocks, and a same beamforming weight vector is applied to at least a subset of the received plurality of physical resource blocks; and

receiving mapping information from the wireless communication network, the mapping information informing the terminal device that a plurality of the antenna ports and/or physical resource blocks have a common beamforming weight vector.

13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

decoding the received physical resource blocks using a first mapping of weight vectors to physical resource blocks on one of the antenna ports;

decoding received physical resource blocks using a second mapping of weight vectors to physical resource blocks on a second antenna port; and

transmitting the preferred mapping to the wireless communication network.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein

the mapping information is received in one of a master information block or a system information block.

15. The method according to claim 12 , wherein

the mapping information is type information.

16. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving a plurality of physical resource blocks at a first frequency, wherein the same beamforming weight vector is applied to the antenna port for a subset of the plurality of physical resource blocks.

17. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising:

changing the frequency from the first frequency to a second frequency and receiving a further plurality of physical resource blocks at the second frequency.

18. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein

the mapping information identifies that a same beamforming weight vector is applied to consecutive physical resource blocks.

19. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein

the mapping information identifies that all physical resources blocks have a common beamforming weight vector.

20. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein

the mapping information is a two bit field configured to signal at least a first type of mapping, a second type of mapping, and a third type of mapping,

the first type of mapping indicating that a same beamforming weight vector is applied to consecutive physical resource blocks,

the second type of mapping indicating that a same beamforming weight vector is applied to at least two specific physical resource blocks, and

the third type of mapping indicating that all physical resources blocks have a common beamforming weight vector.