System and method for determining modulation control information and a reference signal design to be used by a transmitter node

Abstract

A method and system are provided for determining modulation control information and a reference signal design to be used by a transmitter node when generating a transmit signal to transmit from a transmitter (logical antenna) of the transmitter node over a channel of a wireless link to a recipient node. The modulation control information is used by the transmitter node to convert source data into an information bearing signal, and the information bearing signal is combined with a reference signal conforming to the reference signal design in order to produce the transmit signal. The method comprises (a) selecting a candidate reference signal design from a plurality of candidate reference signal designs, (b) determining channel state information for the channel, (c) determining, from the channel state information, signal to noise ratio information for said channel, and (d) for each of a plurality of candidate modulation control information, using the signal to noise ratio information to determine a quality indication for said channel. Steps (a) to (d) are then repeated for each candidate reference signal design in said plurality. Thereafter a winning quality indication is selected from the determined quality indications, and the combination of candidate reference signal design and candidate modulation control information associated with the winning quality indication is then output to the transmitting node. By such an approach, quality indications can be established for each combination of possible reference signal design and possible modulation control information, and hence not only is the inherent channel estimation accuracy achievable using each possible reference signal design considered, but also the data transmission efficiency and robustness to channel effects of each possible modulation control information is also taken into account.