Differential CQI for OFDMA systems

A method of operating a feedback generator in user equipment, comprising:

• providing a differential channel quality indicator, wherein the differential channel quality indicator represents a difference between a first index and a second index, wherein the first index corresponds to a channel quality of an allocated sub-band of the user equipment and the second index corresponds to a wideband CQI, wherein the wideband CQI is a median CQI across all allocated sub-bands;
• and
• transmitting the differential channel quality indicator.

A feedback decoder in a base station, comprising:

• a receive module configured to receive a differential channel quality indicator;
• and
• a CQI selection module configured to provide channel quality indicators from the differential channel quality indicator based on a differential index, wherein the differential index represents a difference between a first index and a second index, wherein the first index corresponds to a channel quality of an allocated sub-band of the user equipment and the second index corresponds to a wideband CQI, wherein the wideband CQI is a median CQI across all allocated sub-bands.

A method of operating a feedback decoder in a base station, comprising:

• receiving a differential channel quality indicator;
• and
• providing channel quality indicators from the differential channel quality indicator based on a differential index, wherein the differential index represents a difference between a first index and a second index, wherein the first index corresponds to a channel quality of an allocated sub-band of the user equipment and the second index corresponds to a wideband CQI, wherein the wideband CQI is a median CQI across all allocated sub-bands.