Methods and circuits for assigning pilot boosting factors and calculating traffic to pilot ratios in a wireless communication system. The data to be transmitted is first modulated to generate a plurality of data modulation symbols. The plurality of data modulation symbols and a plurality of reference signal symbols are mapped into transmission resources of each of a plurality of antennas in accordance with a transmit diversity scheme. The transmission resources of each of the antennas are divided into a plurality of subcarriers in a frequency domain and a plurality of time units in a time domain. Then, a power scaling factor are assigned for data modulation symbols on each of the antennas in dependence upon power levels of the reference signal symbols to maintain a fixed power level across the plurality of antennas in each time unit. Finally, the data modulation symbols and the reference signal symbols are transmitted via the plurality of antennas in accordance with the mapping scheme and the assigned scaling factors.