Abstract: A method of data transmission over guard sub-carriers is provided in a multi-carrier OFDM system. Adjacent radio frequency (RF) carriers are used to carry radio signals transmitted through adjacent frequency channels. A plurality of guard sub-carriers between adjacent frequency channels are aligned and identified for data transmission in a pre-defined physical resource unit. The identified guard sub-carriers do not overlap with normal data sub-carriers of the radio signals transmitted through the adjacent frequency channels. At least one of the identified guard sub-carriers is reserved as NULL sub-carrier. A flexible multi-carrier transceiver architecture is also provided in a multi-carrier OFDM system. Different multi-carrier and/or MIMO/SISO data transmission schemes are implemented by adaptively reconfigure same hardware modules including common MAC layer module, physical layer entities, and RF entities.

Abstract: A communications apparatus is provided. A receiving module receives a signal with a predetermined signal bandwidth. A low pass filter filters the signal to obtain a filtered signal. A filter bandwidth of the low pass filter is wide enough to pass the regular sub-carrier frequency components and at least half of the guard sub-carrier frequency components of the signal. An analog to digital converter samples the filtered signal with a sampling rate exceeding a standard sampling rate defined in accordance with the predetermined signal bandwidth of the signal to obtain a plurality of digital samples. A Fast Fourier Transform module performs a fast Fourier transform on a predetermined number of points of the digital samples to obtain a plurality of transformed samples. The predetermined number exceeds a standard number defined in accordance with the predetermined carrier bandwidth. A sub-carrier collector collects the data from the transformed samples.

Abstract: A comprehensive solution is provided for multi-carrier scanning and handover operations in OFDM wireless systems. A multi-carrier scanning is any scanning operation that involves multi-carrier radio frequency carriers. In one embodiment, a mobile station communicates with a serving base station over a primary carrier, and performs scanning over one or more determined carriers. A multi-carrier handover is any handover operation that involves multiple radio frequency carriers. In a first embodiment, a break-before-entry (BBE) handover procedure with fast synchronization is provided. In a second embodiment, an entry-before-break (EBB) handover procedure through unavailable intervals is provided. In a third embodiment, EBB handover procedures for both inter-FA and intra-FA using multiple carriers are provided. Finally, in a fourth embodiment, intra-BS handover procedures are provided. The multi-carrier handover procedures may be applied to 2-to-2 or N-to-N carriers handover situation.

Abstract: A scheduling technique for wireless multihop relay communication systems is provided. With spatial separation caused by the shadowing effect of surrounding buildings, a base station and its relay stations in a single cell are divided into several groups by following the rule that stations with severe potential interference are separated into different groups. The base station arranges the scheduling of these groups and serves these groups sequentially in the time domain. To take advantage of shadow effect, the same radio resources can be scheduled for relay stations within the same group due to the isolation of interfering signals. In the present invention, base stations and relay stations are equipped with directional antennas or sector antennas to further exploit the advantage of spatial separations. Different relay groups can also reuse the radio resource through appropriate power control. The cell capacity can be enhanced substantially because of aggressive radio resource reuse.

Abstract: A unified two-stage network entry procedure is provided for OFDM multi-carrier wireless communications systems. During a first stage, a mobile station performs a common network entry procedure using a primary radio frequency carrier and then exchanges multi-carrier capability information with a base station. In one embodiment, the base station transmits a network entry allowance indicator to assist the mobile station in selecting the primary carrier. The network entry allowance indicator comprises information of preference of one or more available carriers. During a second stage, the mobile station enables multi-carrier transmission over multiple frequency channels if both the mobile station and the base station support multi-carrier capability. Before enabling multi-carrier transmission, the mobile station may optionally perform additional ranging by transmitting a ranging request for a secondary carrier.

Abstract: A mobile station is provided. The mobile station includes one or more radio transceiver module and a processor. The processor performs a handover negotiation procedure with a serving base station so as to handover communication services to a target base station by transmitting and receiving a plurality of handover negotiation messages via the radio transceiver module, and generates an Authorization Key (AK) context and derives at least one Traffic Encryption Key (TEK) for the target base station. The AK context includes a plurality of keys shared with the target base station for encrypting messages to be transmitted to the target base station, and the TEK is a secret key shared with the target base station for encrypting traffic data.

Abstract: A fast feedback mechanism is provided in a contention-based ranging procedure. A Subscriber Station (SS) initializes a ranging procedure by sending a ranging code on a selected ranging opportunity for resource access to a Base Station (BS) on a shared ranging channel in a previous uplink frame. The SS also starts a time associated with the ranging code. In response to all received ranging opportunities, the BS broadcasts an acknowledgement (ACK) in a subsequent downlink frame. The ACK comprises a reception status message that indicates the decoding status of the ranging opportunities. With the novel fast feedback mechanism, when ranging collision or failure occurs, upon receiving the reception status report, the SS will proceed with the next round of contention without continuing wait for the entire timeout period. As a result, the total latency due to the ranging collision or failure is reduced.

Abstract: A method of aligning sub-carriers of radio signals of two adjacent frequency channels and devices therefor are described. The method comprises aligning a first plurality of sub-carriers of a first radio signal and a second plurality of sub-carriers of a second radio signal within an overlapped frequency region in-between the two adjacent frequency channels by shifting a center frequency of the first radio signal with a frequency offset. The first radio signal and the second radio signal are adapted for transmission over the two adjacent frequency channels and the first frequency channel is one of the two adjacent frequency channels.

Abstract: A method for transmitting system information bit streams of one or more base stations in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes: identifying network-entry-related bit streams and non-network-entry-related bit streams from the system information bit streams, where the network-entry-related bit streams carry essential system information for a terminal to access a network through at least one of the base stations; modulating the network-entry-related bit streams according to a first set of modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) and modulating the non-network-entry-related bit streams according to a second set of MCSs; and transmitting the system information bit streams with different frequencies, where the network-entry-related bit streams are periodically transmitted according to a first predetermined period.

Abstract: Under adaptive frequency reuse technique, mobile stations in a cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system are served by different radio resource regions with appropriate frequency reuse patterns to mitigate inter-cell interference and improve system capacity. In a first novel aspect, the mobile stations measure interference statistics and obtain interference measurement results. The mobile stations report the obtained interference measurement results to serving base stations. The serving base stations determine adaptive frequency reuse patterns based on the received interference measurement result. In a second novel aspect, a radio resource control element receives the interference measurement results, determines frequency reuse patterns and configures radio resource allocation based on the received interference measurement results.

Abstract: Under adaptive frequency reuse technique, mobile stations in a cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system are served by different radio resource regions with appropriate frequency reuse patterns to mitigate inter-cell interference and improve system capacity. In a first novel aspect, the mobile stations measure interference statistics and obtain interference measurement results. The mobile stations report the obtained interference measurement results to serving base stations. The serving base stations determine adaptive frequency reuse patterns based on the received interference measurement result. In a second novel aspect, a radio resource control element receives the interference measurement results, determines frequency reuse patterns and configures radio resource allocation based on the received interference measurement results.

Abstract: A scheduling method for a wireless multi-hop relay communication system, wherein the communication system includes a base station dominating a plurality of relay stations, the scheduling method including separating the plurality of relay stations into N groups, N being a natural number, dividing a period for providing a service by the base station into N phases, wherein N is the number of the groups of the relay stations, serving the relay stations in a jth group during an ith phase by the base station, wherein 1?i, j?N, and serving a user or a subordinate relay station within service areas of the relay stations not in the jth group during the ith phase by the relay stations not in the jth group.

Abstract: A method of providing wireless communication, the method including providing a wireless communication network having a plurality of stations, the plurality of stations having a plurality of communication links, each communication link being between two of the plurality of stations, transmitting a signal from at least one of the stations to other stations, measuring signal quality associated with at least one of the communication links based on the signal to generate a measuring result, and determining an interference level associated with at least one of the communication links based on the measuring result.

Abstract: A scheduling technique for wireless multihop relay communication systems is provided. With spatial separation caused by the shadowing effect of surrounding buildings, a base station and its relay stations in a single cell are divided into several groups by following the rule that stations with severe potential interference are separated into different groups. The base station arranges the scheduling of these groups and serves these groups sequentially in the time domain. To take advantage of shadow effect, the same radio resources can be scheduled for relay stations within the same group due to the isolation of interfering signals. In the present invention, base stations and relay stations are equipped with directional antennas or sector antennas to further exploit the advantage of spatial separations. Different relay groups can also reuse the radio resource through appropriate power control. The cell capacity can be enhanced substantially because of aggressive radio resource reuse.