US2012230380A1PendingUtilityA1

Method for determining beamforming parameters in a wireless communication system and to a wireless communication system

Assignee: KEUSGEN WILHELMPriority: Mar 11, 2011Filed: Mar 11, 2011Published: Sep 13, 2012
Est. expiryMar 11, 2031(~4.6 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
H04B 7/0617H04B 7/0669H04B 7/088H04B 7/0413H04B 7/0482H04B 7/0874H04B 7/0465H04B 7/0691H04B 7/0696
42
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Claims

Abstract

A method for determining a beamforming vector or a beamforming channel matrix in a communication system including a transmitting station and a receiving station, and a communication system are described. The transmitting and receiving stations include respective antenna groups and respective codebooks include a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group.

Claims

exact text as granted — not AI-modified
1 . A method for determining a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, the method comprising:
 performing a test transmission from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal and a beamforming vector pair, the beamforming vector pair including a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the transmitting station and a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the receiving station,   determining a transmission characteristic of the test transmission at the receiving station,   repeating the test transmission and the determination of the transmission characteristic using different beamforming vector pairs, wherein the beamforming vectors in the beamforming vector pair are selected such that each beamforming vector from the codebook of the transmitting station encounters all beamforming vectors from the codebook of the receiving station, and   determining the beamforming vectors of the transmitting and receiving stations from the beamforming vector pair for which the transmission characteristic has a predefined value.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the transmission characteristic is done at the receiving station, and wherein the transmitting station is informed about the beamforming vector determined from the beamforming vector pair. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein informing the transmitting station comprises sending the determined beamforming vector or an information identifying the determined beamforming vector to the transmitting station. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein the method is performed for both directions for obtaining for the station a transmit beamforming vector when the station operates as a transmitting station, and for obtaining a receive beamforming vector when the station operates as a receiving station. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein a station uses the same antennas for transmitting and receiving, and wherein a beamforming vector determined for the station is used both for transmitting and receiving. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the beamforming vectors of the transmitting and receiving stations are provided in respective codebook matrices of the transmitting and receiving stations, and wherein training matrices for the transmitting and receiving stations are provided,
 wherein the training matrix for the transmitting station comprises K R -times the beamforming vectors of the transmitting station, K R  being the number of beamforming vectors in the codebook of the receiving station,   wherein the training matrix for the receiving station comprises K T -times the beamforming vectors of the receiving station, K T  being the number of beamforming vectors in the codebook of the transmitting station, and   wherein the order of the beamforming vectors in the transmitting matrices is selected such that each beamforming vector from the codebook of a transmitting station encounters all beamforming vectors from the codebook of the receiving station.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the training matrices are determined as follows:
     T   T =1 1,K     R       C   T ,     or       T   R   =C   R   1 1,K     T   ,   
       wherein:
 T T =training matrix for beamforming at the transmitting station, 
 T R =training matrix for beamforming at the receiving station, 
 C T =codebook matrix of the transmitting station, 
 C R =codebook matrix of the receiving station, 
 1 1,K     T   =a row vector having K T  elements that are each 1, 
 1 1,K     R   =a row vector having K R  elements that are each 1. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transmission characteristic comprises a receive power, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), and a signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), and wherein the predefined value comprises a maximum of the receive power, of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), of the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), and of the signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). 
     
     
         9 . A wireless communication system comprising:
 a transmitting station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the transmitting station, and   a receiving station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the receiving station,   wherein, for determining a beamforming vector of the antenna groups of the transmitting and receiving stations, the wireless communication system is configured to:
 perform a test transmission from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal and a beamforming vector pair, the beamforming vector pair including a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the transmitting station and a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the receiving station, 
   determine a transmission characteristic of the test transmission at the receiving station,   repeat the test transmission and the determination of the transmission characteristic using different beamforming vector pairs, wherein the beamforming vectors in the beamforming vector pair are selected such that each beamforming vector from the codebook of the transmitting station encounters all beamforming vectors from the codebook of the receiving station, and   determine the beamforming vectors of the transmitting and receiving stations from the beamforming vector pair for which the transmission characteristic has a predefined value.   
     
     
         10 . A method for determining a beamforming channel matrix describing a radio channel between a transmitting station and a receiving station of a wireless communication system, the transmitting and receiving stations comprising respective antenna groups and respective codebooks comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group, the method comprising:
 performing a plurality of test transmissions from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal, wherein for each of the plurality of test transmissions the beamforming vectors at the transmitting station and at the receiving station are varied on the basis of a transmit estimate matrix and a receive estimate matrix, wherein each element of an estimate matrix defines the beamforming weight for a specific antenna from the antenna group used during a specific test transmission, and   determining from all test transmissions the beamforming channel matrix.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein an estimate matrix comprises the beamforming vectors for the transmitting station or the receiving station in chronological order starting with column 1, and wherein the estimate matrix for the transmitting and receiving stations is determined on the basis of a base estimate matrix for the transmitting station and the receiving station, respectively. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the base estimate matrix comprises the beamforming weights and is a square matrix. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication system uses equal-gain beamforming, and wherein the base estimate matrix is a unitary matrix. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the unitary base estimate matrix comprises a Hadamard matrix, a matrix having four equidistant phase states, a matrix having √{square root over (N)} equidistant phase states, or a matrix having N equidistant phase states. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the transmit and receive estimate matrices are defined as follows:
     E   T =1 1,N     B   T ,     and       E   R   =B   R   1 1,M ,   
       wherein:
 E T =transmit estimate matrix, 
 B T =base transmit estimate matrix having the dimension M×M for a transmitting station having M transmit antennas, 
 E R =receive estimate matrix, 
 B R =base receive estimate matrix having the dimension N×N for a receiving station having N receive antennas, 
 1 1,N =a row vector having N elements that are equal 1, and 
 1 1,M =a row vector having M elements that are equal 1, 
 wherein [E T ] m,k  describes a beamforming weight for the m-th transmit antenna during the k-th test transmission of N·M test transmissions, and 
 wherein [E R ] n,k  describes a beamforming weight for the n-th receive antenna during the k-th transmission of the N·M test transmissions. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the beamforming channel matrix is estimated as follows:
     h=S   −1   d,      
       wherein:
 h=vec(H)=vectorized beamforming channel matrix, 
 S=S=(B R   B T ) T    
 B R =base receive estimate matrix, 
 B T =base transmit estimate matrix, and 
 d=transfer coefficient vector for each test signal. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the base estimate matrices are unitary matrices, and wherein the beamforming channel matrix is estimated as follows:
     h=S   H   d.      
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein the method is performed for both directions for obtaining for the station a transmit beamforming channel matrix when the station operates as a transmitting station, and for obtaining a receive beamforming channel matrix when the station operates as the receiving station. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein a station uses the same antennas for transmitting and receiving, and wherein the beamforming channel matrix determined for the station is used both for transmitting and receiving. 
     
     
         20 . A wireless communication network comprising:
 a transmitting station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the transmitting station, and   a receiving station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the receiving station,   wherein, for determining a beamforming channel matrix describing a radio channel between a transmitting station and a receiving station of the wireless communication system, the wireless communication system is configured to:
 perform a plurality of test transmissions from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal, wherein for each of the plurality of test transmissions the beamforming vectors at the transmitting station and at the receiving station are varied on the basis of a transmit estimate matrix and a receive estimate matrix, wherein each element of an estimate matrix defines the beamforming weight for a specific antenna from the antenna group used during a specific test transmission, and 
 determine from all test transmissions the beamforming channel matrix. 
   
     
     
         21 . A method for determining a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, the method comprising:
 determining from the codebook of the transmitting or receiving station the beamforming vector yielding a first predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a known beamforming channel matrix describing the radio channel between the transmitting station and the receiving station, and   determining from the codebook of the receiving or transmitting station the beamforming vector yielding a second predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a combination of the known beamforming channel matrix and the determined transmit or receive beamforming vector.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein for determining the beamforming vectors an optimization method or a search across all beamforming vectors of the respective codebook is made. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the transmitting station comprises selecting the beamforming vector w CH  from the codebook C T  of the transmitting station in accordance with the following equation: 
       
         
           
             
               
                 w 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       w 
                       ∈ 
                       
                         C 
                         T 
                       
                     
                   
                    
                   
                     
                        
                       
                         H 
                          
                         
                             
                         
                          
                         w 
                       
                        
                     
                     1 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       wherein:
 H=known beamforming channel matrix, 
 w=beamforming vector from the codebook C T , and 
 ∥ ∥ 1 =L 1  Norm, Taxi Cab Norm or Manhattan Norm. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the receiving station comprises selecting the beamforming vector z CH  from the codebook C R  of the receiving station in accordance with the following equation: 
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       z 
                       CH 
                     
                     = 
                       
                      
                     
                       arg 
                        
                       
                           
                       
                        
                       
                         
                           max 
                           
                             z 
                             ∈ 
                             
                               C 
                               R 
                             
                           
                         
                          
                         
                            
                           
                             
                               z 
                               T 
                             
                              
                             H 
                              
                             
                                 
                             
                              
                             
                               w 
                               CH 
                             
                           
                            
                         
                       
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   
                     = 
                       
                      
                     
                       arg 
                        
                       
                           
                       
                        
                       
                         
                           max 
                           
                             z 
                             ∈ 
                             
                               C 
                               R 
                             
                           
                         
                          
                         
                            
                           
                             
                               z 
                               T 
                             
                              
                             
                               h 
                               
                                 w 
                                 , 
                                 CH 
                               
                             
                           
                            
                         
                       
                     
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       wherein:
 z=beamforming vector from the codebook Z R . 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the receiving station comprises determining z H  as follows and selecting from the codebook the beamforming vector z CH  having the maximum correlation with z H : 
       
         
           
             
               
                 z 
                 H 
               
               = 
               
                 
                   1 
                   
                     N 
                   
                 
                  
                 
                   exp 
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     
                       - 
                       
                         j∠ 
                          
                         
                           ( 
                           
                             H 
                              
                             
                                 
                             
                              
                             
                               w 
                               CH 
                             
                           
                           ) 
                         
                       
                     
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
         
           
             
               
                 z 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       z 
                       ∈ 
                       
                         C 
                         R 
                       
                     
                   
                    
                   
                      
                     
                       
                         z 
                         H 
                         H 
                       
                        
                       z 
                     
                      
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the receiving station comprises selecting the beamforming vector z CH  from the codebook C R  of the receiving station in accordance with the following equation: 
       
         
           
             
               
                 z 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       z 
                       ∈ 
                       
                         C 
                         R 
                       
                     
                   
                    
                   
                     
                        
                       
                         
                           H 
                           T 
                         
                          
                         z 
                       
                        
                     
                     1 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the transmitting station comprises selecting the beamforming vector w CH  from the codebook C T  of the transmitting station in accordance with the following equation: 
       
         
           
             
               
                 w 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       z 
                       ∈ 
                       
                         C 
                         T 
                       
                     
                   
                    
                   
                      
                     
                       
                         w 
                         T 
                       
                        
                       
                         H 
                         T 
                       
                        
                       
                         z 
                         CH 
                       
                     
                      
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein determining the beamforming vector for the transmitting station comprises determining W H  as follows and selecting from the codebook the beamforming vector w CH  having the maximum correlation with w H : 
       
         
           
             
               
                 w 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 
                   1 
                   
                     N 
                   
                 
                  
                 
                   exp 
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     
                       - 
                       
                         j∠ 
                          
                         
                           ( 
                           
                             
                               
                                 H 
                                  
                                 
                                     
                                 
                               
                               T 
                             
                              
                             
                               z 
                               CH 
                             
                           
                           ) 
                         
                       
                     
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
         
           
             
               
                 w 
                 CH 
               
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       w 
                       ∈ 
                       
                         C 
                         T 
                       
                     
                   
                    
                   
                      
                     
                       
                         w 
                         H 
                         H 
                       
                        
                       w 
                     
                      
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a multicarrier system having K subcarriers, and wherein from the plurality of beamforming matrices H (k)  for the respective subcarriers the beamforming channel matrix H (1)  which has the largest sum of the absolute values of the matrix values is selected for determining the beamforming vectors. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the beamforming channel matrix H (l)  is determined from a subset of the plurality of beamforming matrices H (k)  for the respective subcarriers, and wherein l is determined as follows: 
       
         
           
             
               l 
               = 
               
                 arg 
                  
                 
                     
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     max 
                     
                       k 
                       ∈ 
                       K 
                     
                   
                    
                   
                     
                       ∑ 
                       
                         n 
                         = 
                         1 
                       
                       N 
                     
                      
                     
                       
                         ∑ 
                         
                           m 
                           = 
                           1 
                         
                         M 
                       
                        
                       
                          
                         
                           h 
                           
                             n 
                             , 
                             m 
                           
                           
                             ( 
                             k 
                             ) 
                           
                         
                          
                       
                     
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
         
           
             
               K 
               ⋐ 
               
                 
                   { 
                   
                     1 
                     , 
                     2 
                     , 
                     
                       … 
                        
                       
                           
                       
                        
                       K 
                     
                   
                   } 
                 
                 . 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein the method is performed for both directions for obtaining for the station a transmit beamforming vector when the station operates as a transmitting station, and for obtaining a receive beamforming vector when the station operates as a receiving station. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a plurality of stations allowing for a bidirectional transmission there between, wherein a station uses the same antennas for transmitting and receiving, and wherein a beamforming vector determined for the station is used both for transmitting and receiving. 
     
     
         33 . A wireless communication system comprising:
 a transmitting station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the transmitting station, and   a receiving station comprising an antenna group and a codebook comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group of the receiving station,   wherein, for determining a beamforming vector of the antenna groups of the transmitting and receiving stations, the wireless communication system is configured to:
 determine from the codebook of the transmitting or receiving station the beamforming vector yielding a first predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a known beamforming channel matrix describing the radio channel between the transmitting station and the receiving station, and 
 determine from the codebook of the receiving or transmitting station the beamforming vector yielding a second predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a combination of the known beamforming channel matrix and the determined transmit or receive beamforming vector. 
   
     
     
         34 . A method for determining a beamforming vector for a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector for a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a hybrid MIMO beamforming configuration including a plurality of MIMO branches, each MIMO branch comprising a plurality of antennas, the method comprising:
 splitting the hybrid MIMO beamforming system into a plurality of subsystems, and   determining the beamforming parameters for each subsystem separately.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein both the transmitting station and the receiving station comprise a hybrid MIMO beamforming configuration. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein splitting the hybrid MIMO beamforming system comprises assigning each MIMO transmit branch to a MIMO receive branch and each MIMO receive branch to a MIMO transmit branch. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein the branches are assigned such that the number of MIMO receive branches assigned to the same MIMO transmit branch or the number of MIMO transmit branches assigned to the same MIMO receive branch is minimized. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein assigning comprises:
 assigning the branches such that, in case a plurality of MIMO receive branches is allocated to the same MIMO transmit branch, the MIMO receive branches whose MIMO antennas are spatially as far as possible apart from one another are assigned to the same MIMO transmit branch, or   assigning the branches such that, in case a plurality of MIMO transmit branches is allocated to the same MIMO receive branch, the MIMO transmit branches whose MIMO antennas are spatially as far as possible apart from one another are assigned to the same MIMO receive branch.   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 38 , wherein dependent on the MIMO signal processing not the MIMO branches having the most distant antennas but those MIMO branches having their antennas as close as possible are used. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein the hybrid MIMO beamforming system is split into asymmetric subsystems comprising only one MIMO branch on the transmitting side or on the receiving side. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein splitting the hybrid MIMO beamforming system comprises:
 dividing the hybrid MIMO beamforming system into   
       
         
           
             
               P 
                
               
                   
               
                
               
                 M 
                 p 
               
               × 
               
                 
                   ∑ 
                   
                     q 
                     = 
                     1 
                   
                   Q 
                 
                  
                 
                   N 
                   q 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       subsystems, wherein:
 P=number of MIMO transmit branches, 
 M p =the number of transmit beamforming branches of the p-th MIMO transmit branch, 
 Q=number of MIMO receive branches, 
 N q =number of the receive beaming branches of the q-th MIMO receive branch, dividing the MIMO beamforming system into 
 
       
         
           
             
               Q 
                
               
                   
               
                
               
                 
                   ∑ 
                   
                     p 
                     = 
                     1 
                   
                   P 
                 
                  
                 
                   
                     N 
                     p 
                   
                   × 
                   
                     M 
                     q 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       subsystems, wherein:
 Q=number of MIMO receive branches, 
 P=number of MIMO transmit branches, 
 N p =number of receive beamforming branches of the p-th MIMO receive branch, and 
 M q =number of transmit beamforming branches of the q-th MIMO transmit branch, and 
 wherein the transmit and receive beamforming vectors are determined for the P subsystems and the Q subsystems separately. 
 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein the hybrid MIMO beamforming system is a hybrid SIMO beamforming system with P=1 and Q>1, or wherein the hybrid MIMO beamforming system is a hybrid MISO beamforming system with P>1 and Q=1. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 42 , comprising the following steps for the SIMO beamforming system:
 determining for the   
       
         
           
             
               M 
               × 
               
                   
               
                
               
                 
                   ∑ 
                   
                     q 
                     = 
                     1 
                   
                   Q 
                 
                  
                 
                   N 
                   q 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       beamforming system a suitable transmitting beamforming vector; and
 splitting the SIMO beamforming system into Q M×N q  subsystems, wherein for every subsystem a suitable receiving beamforming vector is determined taking into account the transmitting beamforming vector. 
 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 42 , comprising the following steps for the MISO beamforming system:
 determining for the   
       
         
           
             
               
                 ∑ 
                 
                   p 
                   = 
                   1 
                 
                 P 
               
                
               
                 
                   M 
                   p 
                 
                 × 
                 N 
               
             
           
         
       
       beamforming system a suitable receiving beamforming vector without considering transmitting beamforming vectors; and
 dividing the MISO beamforming system into P M p ×N subsystems, wherein for every beamforming subsystem a suitable transmitting beamforming vector is determined taking into account the receiving beamforming vector. 
 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein determining the beamforming parameters for each subsystem comprises one or more of the following:
 (1) determining the beamforming vector of the transmitting station and of the receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, by
 performing a test transmission from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal and a beamforming vector pair, the beamforming vector pair including a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the transmitting station and a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the receiving station, 
 determining a transmission characteristic of the test transmission at the receiving station, 
 repeating the test transmission and the determination of the transmission characteristic using different beamforming vector pairs, wherein the beamforming vectors in the beamforming vector pair are selected such that each beamforming vector from the codebook of the transmitting station encounters all beamforming vectors from the codebook of the receiving station, and 
 determining the beamforming vectors of the transmitting and receiving stations from the beamforming vector pair for which the transmission characteristic has a predefined value, or 
   (2) determining the beamforming channel matrix describing a radio channel between the transmitting station and the receiving station, the transmitting and receiving stations comprising respective antenna groups and respective codebooks comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group, by
 performing a plurality of test transmissions from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal, wherein for each of the plurality of test transmissions the beamforming vectors at the transmitting station and at the receiving station are varied on the basis of a transmit estimate matrix and a receive estimate matrix, wherein each element of an estimate matrix defines the beamforming weight for a specific antenna from the antenna group used during a specific test transmission, and 
 determining from all test transmissions the beamforming channel matrix, or 
   (3) determining a beamforming vector the transmitting station and the receiving station, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, by
 determining from the codebook of the transmitting or receiving station the beamforming vector yielding a first predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a known beamforming channel matrix describing the radio channel between the transmitting station and the receiving station, and 
 determining from the codebook of the receiving or transmitting station the beamforming vector yielding a second predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a combination of the known beamforming channel matrix and the determined transmit or receive beamforming vector. 
   
     
     
         46 . A wireless communication system comprising:
 a transmitting station, and   a receiving station,   wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a hybrid MIMO beamforming configuration including a plurality of MIMO branches, each MIMO branch comprising a plurality of antennas, and   wherein the system is configured to
 split the hybrid MIMO beamforming system into a plurality of subsystems, and 
 determine the beamforming vectors for each subsystem separately. 
   
     
     
         47 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program including instructions for performing a method for determining a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, when executing the instructions by a computer, the method comprising:
 performing a test transmission from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal and a beamforming vector pair, the beamforming vector pair including a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the transmitting station and a beamforming vector selected from the codebook of the receiving station,   determining a transmission characteristic of the test transmission at the receiving station,   repeating the test transmission and the determination of the transmission characteristic using different beamforming vector pairs, wherein the beamforming vectors in the beamforming vector pair are selected such that each beamforming vector from the codebook of the transmitting station encounters all beamforming vectors from the codebook of the receiving station, and   determining the beamforming vectors of the transmitting and receiving stations from the beamforming vector pair for which the transmission characteristic has a predefined value.   
     
     
         48 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program including instructions for performing a method for determining a beamforming channel matrix describing a radio channel between a transmitting station and a receiving station of a wireless communication system, the transmitting and receiving stations comprising respective antenna groups and respective codebooks comprising a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors for the antenna group, when executing the instructions by a computer, the method comprising:
 performing a plurality of test transmissions from the transmitting station to the receiving station using a test signal, wherein for each of the plurality of test transmissions the beamforming vectors at the transmitting station and at the receiving station are varied on the basis of a transmit estimate matrix and a receive estimate matrix, wherein each element of an estimate matrix defines the beamforming weight for a specific antenna from the antenna group used during a specific test transmission, and   determining from all test transmissions the beamforming channel matrix.   
     
     
         49 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program including instructions for performing a method for determining a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector of an antenna group of a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein each of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a codebook including a plurality of predefined beamforming vectors, when executing the instructions by a computer, the method comprising:
 determining from the codebook of the transmitting or receiving station the beamforming vector yielding a first predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a known beamforming channel matrix describing the radio channel between the transmitting station and the receiving station, and   determining from the codebook of the receiving or transmitting station the beamforming vector yielding a second predefined result when applying the beamforming weights defined in the beamforming vector to a combination of the known beamforming channel matrix and the determined transmit or receive beamforming vector.   
     
     
         50 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program including instructions for performing a method for determining a beamforming vector for a transmitting station in a wireless communication system and a beamforming vector for a receiving station in the wireless communication system, wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station comprises a hybrid MIMO beamforming configuration including a plurality of MIMO branches, each MIMO branch comprising a plurality of antennas, when executing the instructions by a computer, the method comprising:
 splitting the hybrid MIMO beamforming system into a plurality of subsystems, and   determining the beamforming parameters for each subsystem separately.

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