Enhancing coordinated multi-point processing transmission through resource element muting

A system for transmitting signals in a wireless communications network, the system comprising:

• a plurality of base stations, wherein one of the plurality of base stations serves as a lead base station;
• and
• a plurality of transmission points, each of the transmission points associated with one of the plurality of base stations and configured to transmit a cell-specific reference signal in a particular set of resource elements;
• wherein the lead base station is configured to:
• map data to all available resource elements in a physical resource block except the resource elements in which the lead base station is configured to transmit a cell-specific reference signal;
• and
• instruct each remaining base station to mute all transmissions in the particular set of resource elements in which the transmission point associated with that base station is configured to transmit a cell specific reference signal, the instructing including instructing each remaining base station not to map encoded bits to the resource elements designated for the lead base station and not to transmit the encoded bits mapped by the lead base station to the resource elements designated for each remaining base station.