Bandwidth signalling

Abstract

The invention relates to bandwidth signalling in a multicarrier wireless telecommunication system. The information is transferred in the band itself (bold carriers) and contains information of the size and location of the band (I). The information is repeated in a number of carriers (bold) through out the band.

1 . A method in a multicarrier wireless telecommunication system for interchanging radio communication between base stations (BS) and mobile user stations (MS) of the system, the method comprising:
 transmitting information signals over the air interface relating to size and location of operational bands of the radio spectrum used by the system;   wherein the transmitted information signals comprise information of the bandwidth and location in the spectrum of the operational bands as part of the information in one or several sub carriers of the bands; and   wherein the location information is implicitly derivable from synchronization signals.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the signalling is received by the mobile user stations, which detect the information about available blocks of spectrum and store it into a memory. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the size information is repeated regularly in subsequent carriers or subcarriers of the operational band. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises the start and stop frequencies of the band and thereby the bandwidth. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises an identifying number representing the size and location of available operational bands. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the mobile user stations repeatedly scan the information signalling for updating memory of the respective mobile user stations about changing conditions relating to the operational bands. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the operational bands belong to different operators and wherein the subscribers of an operator may partly or wholly have access to operational bands of another operator. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a mobile user station requests access to a multicarrier band with N carriers for downloading information, the method further comprising:
 the mobile user station searching the radio interface for an N-carrier band by looking for location and size information;   the communication system assigning a free band with N+ε carriers to the mobile user station upon the request where ε is zero or a small number compared to N; and   the mobile station downloading the information.   
     
     
         10 . A wireless multicarrier telecommunication system comprising:
 a traffic controlling center; and transmitting units controlled by said traffic controlling center, wherein the transmitting units transmit information signals relating to available resources of the system to mobile units, wherein the information signals comprise information about the size and location of available bandwidth in a number of operational bands allocated to the system;   wherein the location information is implicitly derivable from synchronization signals.   
     
     
         11 . A base station node (BS) in a multicarrier telecommunication system, the base station node comprising:
 a memory; and   a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in the memory, whereby the base station node is operative to:
 transmit information relating to properties of available operational bands of the spectrum allocated to the system, wherein the information is related to size and location of the available operational bands; and 
 wherein the location information is implicitly derivable from synchronization signals. 
   
     
     
         12 . A mobile station node in a multicarrier telecommunication system, the mobile station node comprising:
 a memory; and   a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in the memory, whereby the mobile station node is operative to:
 receive information signalling relating to available operational bands in terms of size and location in the radio spectrum; and 
 search for channels based on said received information signalling; 
 wherein the location information is implicitly derivable from synchronization signals. 
   
     
     
         13 . The mobile station node of  claim 12 , wherein the operational band relating data is stored in the memory.