Methods and apparatus for efficient digital broadcast signaling in a wireless communications system

US7990840B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• QUALCOMM Incorporated · US

Inventors

• Rajiv Laroia · Far Hills, US
• Arnab Das · Washington, US
• Junyi Li · Mount Olive, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 7, 2006
• Grant date: Aug 2, 2011
• Expiry date: Aug 19, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W52/42
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

First and second transmitters transmit signals communicating the same information, e.g., program segment, but at different times. Different carriers may, but need not be, used by the different transmitters. If a wireless terminal can not recover broadcast segment information from one carrier, the wireless terminal can switch to another transmitter and recover the information, e.g., on another carrier, since the broadcasts are intentionally offset in time. In some embodiments, the timing is offset such that a single channel receiver is able to recover signals corresponding to the same program segment from two sources, and perform a decoding and information recovery using input from both sources, where recovery using input from a single source is not possible. Symbol level timing synchronization of base stations is not required thereby allowing for simpler implementations and/or lower overhead, as compared to systems which require base stations to be synchronized to the symbol timing level.