Wireless communication device configured to perform interference whitening operation and operating method thereof

An operating method of a wireless communication device, the operating method comprising:

• receiving a wireless signal through a transceiver;
• performing, by a processor, a channel estimation operation, based on the wireless signal;
• performing, by the processor, a noise covariance estimation operation, based on a result of performing the channel estimation operation;
• performing, by the processor, a whitening filter calculation operation, based on a result of performing the noise covariance estimation operation;
• and
• performing, by the processor, an interference whitening operation, based on a result of performing the whitening filter calculation operation,
• wherein the performing of the interference whitening operation comprises:
• in a time-frequency domain, in which resources are allocated across subcarriers and symbols in a given time slot for data transmission, determining a first area and a second area in a resource element (RE) area comprising a plurality of REs;
• segmenting the second area into a plurality of segmentation areas;
• calculating a first adjustment whitening filter and a plurality of segmentation adjustment whitening filters to be respectively applied to the first area and the plurality of segmentation areas;
• and
• performing the interference whitening operation on the first area and the plurality of segmentation areas, based on the first adjustment whitening filter and the plurality of segmentation adjustment whitening filters, respectively.

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a transceiver configured to receive a wireless signal;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• in a time-frequency domain, in which resources are allocated across subcarriers and symbols in a given time slot for data transmission, determine a first area and a second area within a resource element (RE) area comprising a plurality of REs,
• calculate a first adjustment whitening filter and a second adjustment whitening filter to be respectively applied to the first area and the second area, and
• perform an interference whitening operation on the first area and the second area, based on the first adjustment whitening filter and the second adjustment whitening filter, respectively.