Large-Scale Antenna Method And Apparatus Of Wireless Communication With Suppression Of Intercell Interference

A method performed by a base station in a cellular network in which the base station serves a population of same-cell terminals, the cellular network includes other base stations that serve respective populations of other-cell terminals, the terminals are allocated to two or more terminal groups, each terminal group is a reuse group for pilot signals transmitted by terminals, and each terminal within a given cell belongs to a respective terminal group;

• the method comprising:
• receiving a respective reverse-link signal from each of two or more terminal groups, wherein each said signal is a combination of reverse-link signals synchronously transmitted by a plurality of same-cell and other-cell terminals in the same terminal group;
• obtaining from each of one or more other base stations a further reverse-link signal received by the other base station from each of the terminal groups;
• and
• linearly combining selected received signals and obtained signals, thereby to recover reverse-link messages transmitted by same-cell terminals in each of two or more terminal groups.

Base station apparatus adapted to serve a population of same-cell terminals within a cellular network that also includes other base stations that serve respective populations of other-cell terminals, comprising:

• a module adapted for obtaining messages destined for a plurality of same-cell terminals and for a plurality of other-cell terminals;
• a module adapted to form a plurality of pilot contamination precoded messages from said messages, wherein each said precoded message pertains to a respective terminal group, each terminal group is a reuse group for pilot signals transmitted by terminals, each terminal within a given cell belongs to a respective terminal group, and each pilot contamination precoded message is a linear combination of the messages destined for the same-cell and other-cell terminals of a respective terminal group;
• and
• a module adapted for transmitting the pilot contamination precoded messages synchronously with the other base stations.

Base station apparatus adapted to serve a population of same-cell terminals within a cellular network that also includes other base stations that serve respective populations of other-cell terminals, comprising:

• a module adapted for receiving a respective reverse-link signal from each of a plurality of terminal groups, wherein each terminal group is a reuse group for pilot signals transmitted by terminals, each terminal within a given cell belongs to a respective terminal group, and each said signal is a combination of reverse-link signals synchronously transmitted by a plurality of same-cell and other-cell terminals in the same terminal group;
• a module adapted for obtaining from each of a plurality of other base stations a further reverse-link signal received by the other base station from each of the terminal groups;
• and
• a module adapted for linearly combining selected received signals and obtained signals, thereby to recover reverse-link messages transmitted by same-cell terminals in each of two or more terminal groups.