MIMO/Transmit Diversity Channel Estimation

A receive station in a MIMO communication system, the receive station comprising:

• a receiver front end to receive a signal comprising a combination of multiple pilot signals from different transmit antennas in the MIMO communication system wherein said pilot signals are spread over an extended period spanning multiple symbol periods;
• a despreader configured to:
• despread the received signal over each symbol period of extended measurement period spanning multiple ones of the extended periods using a common spreading sequence to obtain a set of despread pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended measurement period;
• a signal processor configured to:
• determine combined channel estimates for the pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended measurement period based on the set of despread signals;
• and
• determine individual channel estimates for the pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended period based on the combined channel estimates.

A channel estimation unit in a receive station of a MIMO communication system, wherein the receive station receives a signal comprising a combination of multiple pilot signals from different transmit antennas in the MIMO communication system, wherein said pilot signals are spread over an extended period spanning multiple symbol periods, said channel estimation unit comprising:

• a despreader configured to:
• despread the received signal over each symbol period of an extended measurement period spanning multiple ones of the extended periods using a common spreading sequence to obtain a set of despread pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended measurement period;
• a signal processor configured to:
• determine combined channel estimates for the pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended measurement period based on the set of despread signals;
• and
• determine individual channel estimates for the pilot signals over each symbol period of the extended period based on the combined channel estimates.