Pdsch resource element mapping for three-cell joint transmission

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a user equipment (UE) in a cluster, a joint transmission comprising multiple resource blocks (RBs) from multiple respective base stations (eNBs) in the cluster, each RB comprising a plurality of resource elements (REs), the plurality of resource elements further comprising a collided RE, wherein the collided RE comprises:
• a first RE comprising a linear combination of two symbols in a first RB of the multiple RBs;
• a second RE comprising the linear combination of two symbols in a second RB of the multiple RBs;
• and
• a third RE comprising a first cell-specific reference signal (CRS) RE in a third RB of the multiple RBs;
• wherein the first RE is located in a first subcarrier position and a symbol position of the first RB, the second RE is located in the first subcarrier position and the symbol position of the second RB, and the third RE is located in the first subcarrier position and the symbol position of the third RB;
• and
• extracting, by the UE, the linear combination of two symbols from the joint transmission.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a user equipment (UE) in a cluster, a joint transmission comprising multiple resource blocks (RBs) from first, second, and third respective base stations (eNBs) in the cluster, each RB comprising a plurality of collided REs, the plurality of collided REs residing in a single symbol period of the three RBs, each collided RE comprising a linear combination of two symbols and a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) RE;
• estimating, by the UE:
• a first channel response based on a first channel disposed between the UE and the first eNB in the cluster;
• a second channel response based on a second channel disposed between the UE and the second eNB in the cluster;
• and
• a third channel response based on a third channel disposed between the UE and the third eNB in the cluster, wherein the first, second, and third channel responses are based on first, second, and third CRS REs, respectively, disposed throughout the first, second, and third RBs;
• wherein the UE uses the first channel response, the second channel response, and the third channel response to obtain the linear combination of two symbols from the joint transmission.

A method, comprising:

• transmitting, by a base station (eNB), either a single physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) symbols or a linear combination of two PDSCH symbols three consecutive cell-specific reference signal (CRS)-collided resource elements of a resource block, wherein the resource block is transmitted as part of a joint transmission by eNBs in a cluster of a wireless neighborhood;
• transmitting, by the eNB, the non-CRS-collided resource elements of the resource block using a first modulation order;
• and
• transmitting, by the eNB, the CRS-collided resource elements of the resource block using a second modulation order, wherein the first modulation order is higher than the second modulation order.