Signaling carrier aggregation by means of carrier indicators and UE-specific mapping rules to a mobile device in a radio communications network

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for signalling carrier aggregation in a radio communication network supporting a plurality of component carriers, at least two component carriers being available for communication between a network equipment and a user equipment, at least one component carrier supporting a control channel for signalling resources. According to the present invention, the method comprises the steps of:
- generating at least one mapping rule for said user equipment, said mapping rules mapping values of said carrier indicator to one of said component carriers available for communication between said network equipment and said user equipment;
- forwarding said mapping rule to said user equipment;
- including a Carrier indicator in said control channel, the length of the carrier indicator being at most equal to the number of bits which would be required to signal the total number of component carriers available for the communication between the user equipment and the network equipment;
-determining at the user equipment one or more component carrier to be used by said user equipment based on said carrier indicator and on said mapping rule.