Flexible transmission of messages in a wireless communication system with multiple transmit antennas

Abstract

Devices and methods for transmitting information in resource blocks between a base station and one or more communication devices are disclosed. In each resource block (RB) used for a data or control channel transmission, a plurality of non-overlapping regions of resource elements (REs) are defined. Each region is associated with one or multiple unique reference symbols (RSs), and may be further associated with one or more antenna ports. When user equipment (UE) demodulates the information it receives in a particular region of an RB, it uses the RS and/or antenna port associated with that region. The RS and/or antenna port information may be used, for example, to estimate a channel of the communication network or to demodulate and decode the data contained within the associated regions.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for transmitting data in a resource block from a base station to a communication device, the base station including a plurality of antenna ports and the resource block including a plurality of regions that comprise resource elements, the method comprising:
 allocating a first portion of said data to a first region of said plurality of regions, wherein said first portion of said data is associated with a first reference symbol;   allocating a second portion of said data to a second region of said plurality of regions, wherein said second portion of said data is associated with a second reference symbol;   encoding said first and second portions of said data to generate first and second encoded data;   modulating said first encoded data to generate first modulated data;   modulating said second encoded data to generate second modulated data; and   transmitting said first and second modulated data and said first and second reference symbols in said resource block to said communication device,   wherein said first reference symbol is associated with a first antenna port of said plurality of antenna ports and said second reference symbol is associated with a second antenna port of said plurality of antenna ports.