Methods and apparatus for performing channel estimation on flexible duplexing slots based on additional assistance information signals from at least one neighbor base station

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
• cause an indication to be provided to at least one neighbor base station that assistance information to support interference channel estimation should be provided;
• receive assistance information from the at least one neighbor base station;
• cause a time-frequency muting pattern to be signaled to at least one user equipment in a first cell based at least in part on the assistance information;
• and
• while the at least one user equipment is muted in accordance with the time-frequency muting pattern, estimate an interference covariance matrix from an interfering link of the at least one neighbor base station based at least in part on the assistance information and estimate the desired signal based on the interference covariance matrix.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instruction stored thereon for perform at least the following:

• causing an indication to be provided to at least one neighbor base station that assistance information to support interference channel estimation should be provided;
• receiving assistance information from the at least one neighbor base station;
• causing a time-frequency muting pattern to be signaled by a base station to at least one user equipment in a first cell based at least in part on the assistance information;
• and
• while the at least one user equipment is muted in accordance with the time-frequency muting pattern, estimating an interference covariance matrix from an interfering link of the at least one neighbor base station based at least in part on the assistance information and estimating the desired signal based on the interference covariance matrix.