A user equipment (UE) receiving a plurality of reference signals in a wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system includes a transceiver configured for receiving the plurality of reference signals for multiple antennas in a sub-frame, the sub-frame including a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a time domain over a plurality of sub-carriers in a frequency domain. A first array is repeated in the frequency domain on a first OFDM symbol of the sub-frame, a second array is repeated in the frequency domain on a second OFDM symbol of the sub-frame and a third array is repeated in the frequency domain on a third OFDM symbol of the sub-frame, and each of the first, second and third arrays consists of six contiguous symbols in the frequency domain.