An apparatus and method for transmitting reference signals in a communication system are provided. The method includes transmitting common reference signals of a first type from a transmitter to a plurality of receivers; transmitting receiver-specific reference signals of a second type from a plurality of distributed ports to a subset of the plurality of receivers; wherein the common reference signals of the first type and the receiver-specific reference signals of the second type are allocated to different resources from one another, and wherein the communication system includes the transmitter and the plurality of receivers and the transmitter uses a plurality of central ports and the plurality of distributed ports to transmit to the plurality of receivers.