Virtual multicarrier design for orthogonal frequency division multiple access communications

1. A base station comprising:

a baseband processing block to modulate an encoded input signal according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme and to control a transmitter to transmit the encoded input data on first and second physical carriers of an OFDM signal to a first terminal, wherein;

the first physical carrier includes a first physical subcarrier;

the second physical carrier includes a second physical subcarrier;

the first and second physical subcarriers have a spacing between each other that is equal to, or a multiple of, a spacing between adjacent physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier; and

the first and second physical carriers have adjacent frequency bands; and

said baseband processing block comprises an inverse fast Fourier transformer (IFFT) module configured to utilize all frequency domain samples that correspond to a carrier as one vector input group and to configure an assigned bandwidth as a plurality of physical carriers.

2. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the baseband processing block is to communicate with the first terminal using physical subcarriers of the first and the second physical carriers; and

to communicate with a second terminal using physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier and a third physical carrier.

3. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the baseband processing block is to control the transmitter to transmit to the first terminal allocation information to identify a downlink resource that includes the OFDM signal.

4. The base station of claim 3 , wherein the downlink resource includes a group of consecutive physical subcarriers that includes the first subcarrier and the second subcarrier.

5. An apparatus for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver to receive signals of a first frequency band that is an aggregate of a bandwidth of a plurality of physical carriers; and

a baseband processing block configured to modulate an encoded input signal according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme and to control a transmitter operably coupled to an antenna to transmit the encoded input data on first and second physical carriers of an OFDM signal to a first terminal wherein;

the first physical carrier includes a first physical subcarrier;

the second physical carrier includes a second physical subcarrier;

the first and second physical subcarriers have a spacing between each other, that is equal to, or a multiple of, a spacing between adjacent physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier; and

the first and second physical carriers have adjacent frequency bands; and

said baseband processing block comprises an inverse fast Fourier transformer (IFFT) module configured to utilize all frequency domain samples that correspond to a carrier as one vector input group and to configure an assigned bandwidth as a plurality of physical carriers.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the baseband processing block is to communicate with the first terminal using physical subcarriers of the first and the second physical carriers; and

to communicate with a second terminal using physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier and a second physical carrier.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the baseband processing block is to control the transmitter to transmit to the first terminal allocation information to identify a downlink resource that includes the OFDM signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the downlink resource includes a group of consecutive physical subcarriers that includes the first subcarrier and the second subcarrier.

9. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the antenna comprises a dipole antenna.

10. A method comprising:

modulating an encoded input signal according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme;

controlling a transmitter to transmit the encoded input data on first and second physical carriers of an OFDM signal to a first terminal wherein:

the first physical carrier includes a first physical subcarrier;

the second physical carrier includes a second physical subcarrier;

the first and second physical subcarriers have a spacing between each other that is equal to, or a multiple of, a spacing between adjacent physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier; and

the first and second physical carriers have adjacent frequency bands; and

utilizing by an inverse fast Fourier transformer (IFFT) module, frequency domain samples that correspond to a carrier as an one vector input group and to configure an assigned bandwidth as a plurality of physical carriers.

11. The method of claim 10 , comprising:

communicating with the first terminal using physical subcarriers of the first and the second physical carriers; and

communicating with a second terminal using physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier and a second physical carrier.

12. The method of claim 10 , comprising:

controlling the transmitter to transmit to the first terminal allocation information to identify a downlink resource that includes the OFDM signal.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the downlink resource includes a group of consecutive physical subcarriers that includes the first subcarrier and the second subcarrier.

14. A computing device having a wireless network interface card, the wireless network interface card comprises:

a baseband processing block to modulate an encoded input signal according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme and to control a transmitter to transmit the encoded input data on first and second physical carriers of an OFDM signal to a first terminal wherein:

the first physical carrier includes a first physical subcarrier;

the second physical carrier includes a second physical subcarrier;

the first and second physical subcarriers have a spacing between each other that is equal to, or a multiple of, a spacing between adjacent physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier; and

the first and second physical carriers have adjacent frequency bands; and

said baseband processing block comprises an inverse fast Fourier transformer (IFFT) module configured to utilize all frequency domain samples that correspond to a carrier as an one vector input group and to configure an assigned bandwidth as a plurality of physical carriers.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the wireless network interface card is to communicate with the first terminal using physical subcarriers of the first and the second physical carriers; and

to communicate with a second terminal using physical subcarriers of the first physical carrier and a second physical carrier.

16. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the baseband processing block of the wireless network interface card is to control the transmitter to transmit to the first terminal allocation information to identify a downlink resource that includes the OFDM signal.

17. The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the downlink resource includes a group of consecutive physical subcarriers that includes the first subcarrier and the second subcarrier.

18. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the wireless network interface card comprises a dipole antenna.

19. The computing device of claim 14 , comprises a memory.

20. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the wireless network interface card comprises a base station.