Method and apparatus for initial acquisition and cell search for an OFDMA system

摘要

A method and apparatus is provided for transmitting an orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) signal including a synchronization channel signal transmitted within a localized portion of a bandwidth of the OFDMA signal ( 818 ), the synchronization channel signal having predetermined time domain symmetry within the localized portion of the bandwidth ( 816 ) and including information for providing at least partial cell identification information ( 812 ). The synchronization channel signal enables an initial acquisition and cell search method with low computational load which provides OFDMA symbol timing detection and frequency error detection ( 1112 ) and frame boundary detection and cell specific information detection ( 1114 ) in an OFDMA system supporting multiple system bandwidths, both synchronized and un-synchronized systems, a large cell index and an OFDMA symbol structure with both short and long cyclic prefix length.