Method and Arrangement for Antenna Mode Switching

A method for switching antenna mode from a first antenna mode to a second antenna mode in a multi-antenna port radio access node including logical antenna ports and physical antenna ports, wherein each physical antenna port is individually powered and logical antenna ports are mapped to a first set of physical antenna ports in the first antenna mode, the method comprising:

• at a first point of time, receiving information triggering antenna mode switching;
• during a timer interval from the first point of time to a second point of time, re-mapping the logical antenna ports and associated resource elements to a second set of physical antenna ports;
• and
• at the second point of time, switching to the second antenna mode by changing supply of power to each physical antenna port represented in the first set of physical antenna ports but not in the second set.

A radio access node for antenna mode switching from a first antenna mode to a second antenna mode in a wireless communication network, the radio access node including multiple antenna ports, each antenna port comprising a logical antenna port mapped to a physical antenna port and each physical antenna port including one or more power amplifiers;

• wherein a set of logical antenna ports are mapped to a first set of physical antenna ports in the first antenna mode and to a second set of physical antenna ports in the second antenna mode;
• the radio access node further comprising:
• an antenna mode mapping unit, configured to map the set of logical antenna ports to a first or a second set of physical antenna ports;
• an antenna mode switching controller configured to process antenna mode triggering information and to initiate re-mapping of the set of logical antenna ports from the first to the second set of physical antenna ports in response to the triggering information;
• a medium-access control, MAC, scheduler;
• and
• a radio subsystem including said physical antenna ports.