Methods and devices for determining effective mutual information

A receiver circuit, comprising:

• a first unit configured to receive a composite signal comprising non-interfered data resource elements and interfered data resource elements from a plurality of radio cells;
• a second unit configured to determine a first mutual information metric based on the non-interfered data resource elements;
• a third unit configured to determine a second mutual information metric based on the interfered data resource elements;
• and
• a fourth unit configured to determine effective mutual information based on a combination of the first mutual information metric and the second mutual information metric.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a composite signal at a receiver circuit;
• determining a first mutual information metric based on a first covariance measure;
• determining a second mutual information metric based on a second covariance measure different from the first covariance measure;
• and
• determining effective mutual information based on a combination of the first mutual information metric and the second mutual information metric.

A mobile device, comprising:

• a receiver circuit configured to receive a composite signal comprising non-interfered data resource elements and interfered data resource elements from a plurality of radio cells;
• a baseband circuit configured to determine a first mutual information metric based on the non-interfered data resource elements, a second mutual information metric based on the interfered data resource elements and effective mutual information based on a combination of the first mutual information metric and the second mutual information metric;
• and
• a transmitter circuit configured to modulate a baseband signal comprising the effective mutual information on a radio frequency carrier and to transmit the modulated baseband signal through an air link to a base station.