Method of signaling particular types of resource elements in a wireless communication system

1. A wireless communication terminal comprising:

a transceiver configured to:

receive an indication corresponding to a first set of one or more resource elements of a particular type within a set of allocated resources, wherein the indication indicates that one or more resource elements of the particular type do not contain any data symbol intended for the wireless communication terminal;

receive data symbols from a first base station;

receive reference symbols from a second base station; and

decode the data symbols using knowledge of the reference symbols received from the second base station; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to:

determine resource elements that carry data intended for the wireless communication terminal from the set of allocated resource elements, wherein the resource elements that carry data intended for the wireless communication terminal exclude at least resource elements associated with the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type, and

decode the resource elements that carry the data intended for the wireless communication terminal based on the determined resource elements that carry the data intended for the wireless communication terminal.

2. The terminal of claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type are shifted relative to a known reference signal pattern.

3. The terminal of claim 2 , wherein the known reference signal pattern corresponds to a reference signal pattern of a serving cell of the wireless communication terminal.

4. The terminal of claim 2 , wherein the known reference signal pattern comprises a second set of one or more resource elements.

5. The terminal of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to suppress interference prior to extracting information from the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type.

6. The terminal of claim 1 , wherein the indication corresponding to the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type includes an index of a known reference signal pattern within a set of reference signal patterns known to the wireless communication terminal.

7. The terminal of claim 1 , wherein the indication corresponding to the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type comprises a bit field in a control message.

8. The terminal of claim 1 , wherein the indication corresponding to the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type includes a shift value for shifting the known reference signal pattern.

9. The terminal of claim 8 , wherein the shift value is from among a set of values including 0, 1 and 2.

10. A method in a wireless communication terminal, the method comprising:

receiving a control message providing information of a set of allocated resource elements intended for the wireless communication terminal;

receiving an indication corresponding to a first set of one or more resource elements of a particular type within the set of allocated resource elements, wherein the indication indicates that one or more resource elements of the particular type do not contain any data symbol intended for the wireless communication terminal;

receiving data symbols from a first base station;

receiving reference symbols from a second base station;

decoding the data symbols using knowledge of the reference symbols received from the second base station;

determining the resource elements that carry data intended for the wireless communication terminal excluding at least the resource elements associated with the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type; and

decoding the resource elements that carry the data intended for the wireless communication terminal based on the determined resource elements that carry the data intended for the wireless communication terminal.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type are shifted relative to a known reference signal pattern.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the known reference signal pattern corresponds to a reference signal pattern of a serving cell of the wireless communication terminal.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the known reference signal pattern comprises a second set of one or more resource elements.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising suppressing interference prior to extracting information from the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the indication corresponding to the first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type includes an index of a known reference signal pattern within a set of reference signal patterns known to the wireless communication terminal.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the indication corresponding to a first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type comprises a bit field in the control message.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the indication corresponding to a first set of one or more resource elements of the particular type includes a shift value for shifting the known reference signal pattern.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the shift value is selected from a set of values including 0, 1, and 2.