Method and apparatus for transmitting downlink reference signal in wireless communication system that supports multiple antennas

A method of estimating a channel at a user equipment, UE, using channel state information-reference signals, CSI-RSs, for 8 or fewer antenna ports received from a base station, the method comprising:

• receiving the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports in a downlink subframe having an normal cyclic prefix, CP, configuration in which the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped to a data region according to a predetermined pattern, wherein the downlink subframe having the normal CP configuration has 14 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM, symbols, where the OFDM symbol index starts from 0;
• and
• estimating the channel using the CSI-RSs,
• wherein the predetermined pattern is defined such that the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped to two consecutive OFDM symbols in the data region and are mapped to one or more of four subcarrier locations in each of the two consecutive OFDM symbols, in one resource block pair,
• wherein the two consecutive OFDM symbols are defined in the predetermined pattern and are OFDM symbol indexes 5 and 6 or OFDM symbol indexes 12 and 13,
• wherein the CSI-RSs are subjected to code division multiplexing, CDM, using orthogonal codes, and
• wherein CSI-RSs for two antenna ports are mapped to same OFDM symbols and same subcarriers, and are multiplexed by CDM over the two consecutive OFDM symbols.

A base station, BS, for transmitting channel state information-reference signals, CSI-RSs, for 8 or fewer antenna ports, the BS comprising:

• a reception module configured to receive an uplink signal from a user equipment, UE;
• a transmission module configured to transmit a downlink signal to the UE;
• and
• a processor configured to control the reception module and the transmission module,
• wherein the processor is further configured to control the transmission module to transmit the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports to a data region of a downlink subframe having an normal cyclic prefix (CP) configuration, wherein the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped according to a predetermined pattern, wherein the downlink subframe having the normal CP configuration has 14 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM, symbols, where the OFDM symbol index starts from 0,
• wherein the predetermined pattern is defined such that the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped to two consecutive OFDM symbols in the data region of the downlink subframe and are mapped to one or more of four subcarrier locations in each of the two consecutive OFDM symbols, in one resource block pair,
• wherein the two consecutive OFDM symbols are defined in the predetermined pattern and are OFDM symbol indexes 5 and 6 or OFDM symbol indexes 12 and 13,
• wherein the CSI-RSs are subjected to code division multiplexing, CDM, using orthogonal codes, and
• wherein CSI-RSs for two antenna ports are mapped to same OFDM symbols and same subcarriers, and are multiplexed by CDM over the two consecutive OFDM symbols.

A user equipment, UE, for estimating a channel using channel state information-reference signals, CSI-RSs, for 8 or fewer antenna ports received from a base station, BS, the UE comprising:

• a reception module configured to receive a downlink signal from the BS;
• a transmission module configured to transmit an uplink signal to the BS;
• and
• a processor configured to control the reception module and the transmission module,
• wherein the processor is further configured to receive the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports in a downlink subframe having an normal cyclic prefix (CP) configuration in which the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped to a data region according to a predetermined pattern, wherein the downlink subframe having the normal CP configuration has 14 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM, symbols, where the OFDM symbol index starts from 0,
• wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the channel using the CSI-RSs,
• wherein the predetermined pattern is defined such that the CSI-RSs for the 8 or fewer antenna ports are mapped to two consecutive OFDM symbols in the data region of the downlink subframe and are mapped to one or more among four subcarrier locations in each of the two consecutive OFDM symbols, in one resource block pair,
• wherein the two consecutive OFDM symbols are defined in the predetermined pattern and are OFDM symbol indexes 5 and 6 or OFDM symbol indexes 12 and 13,
• wherein the CSI-RSs are subjected to code division multiplexing, CDM, using orthogonal codes, and
• wherein CSI-RSs for two antenna ports are mapped to same OFDM symbols and same subcarriers, and are multiplexed by CDM over the two consecutive OFDM symbols.