Signaling of dedicated reference signal (drs) precoding granularity

A method for communication, comprising:

• transmitting to a receiver signals, which comprise one or more dedicated reference signals, over a communication channel in multiple blocks, wherein the signals in each block, including the dedicated reference signals, are transmitted on a respective group of subcarriers over a respective time interval and are precoded using a respective precoding scheme that maps the signals onto multiple antenna ports of the transmitter;
• and
• transmitting to the receiver signaling information, which is indicative of two or more of the blocks whose respective precoding schemes do not differ from one another, so as to cause the receiver to estimate one or more parameters of the communication channel over the dedicated reference signals comprised in the two or more blocks.

A communication apparatus, comprising:

• one or more receive antennas;
• and
• a receiver, which is configured to receive via the receive antennas signals comprising one or more dedicated reference signals, that are transmitted from a transmitter over a communication channel in multiple blocks, wherein the signals in each block, including the dedicated reference signals, are transmitted on a respective group of subcarriers over a respective time interval and are precoded using a respective precoding scheme that maps the signals onto multiple antenna ports of the transmitter, to estimate one or more parameters of the communication channel over the dedicated reference signals comprised in two or more of the blocks whose respective precoding schemes do not differ from one another, and to decode the signals based on the estimated parameters.

A communication apparatus, comprising:

• multiple antenna ports;
• and
• a transmitter, which is configured to transmit over a communication channel to a receiver signals comprising one or more dedicated reference signals, wherein the signals are transmitted in multiple blocks, wherein the signals in each block, including the dedicated reference signals, are transmitted on a respective group of subcarriers over a respective time interval and are precoded using a respective precoding scheme that maps the signals onto the multiple antenna ports, and wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit to the receiver signaling information, which is indicative of two or more of the blocks whose respective precoding schemes do not differ from one another, so as to cause the receiver to estimate one or more parameters of the communication channel over the dedicated reference signals comprised in the two or more blocks.