MULTI CARRIER NETWORK CONFIGURATION

1 . A method of acknowledging receipt of a control message instructing a change in carrier configuration in a multi-carrier wireless telecommunication network, said multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network comprising a plurality of network nodes operable to substantially simultaneously transmit and receive signals on more than one radio frequency carrier within a sector of said telecommunications network,

said method comprising:

receiving said control message,

encoding an acknowledgement of safe receipt of said control message,

transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt, and a predetermined period after said transmission of said acknowledgement of safe receipt, re-transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt.

2 . A method according to claim 1 , further comprising more than one retransmission.

3 . A method according to claim 1 , further comprising reconfiguring hardware in response to the instructed change in carrier configuration.

4 . A method according to claim 3 , wherein said transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt, occurs prior to said reconfiguring hardware and said re-transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt occurs after said reconfiguring hardware.

5 . A method according to claim 3 , wherein said transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt, occurs prior to said reconfiguring hardware and said re-transmitting said acknowledgement of safe receipt occurs during said reconfiguring hardware.

6 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein said encoding an acknowledgement of safe receipt of said control message comprises encoding an acknowledgement of safe receipt comprising additional coding operable to reduce misinterpretation of said acknowledgement.

7 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein said additional coding comprises additional redundancy.

8 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein said additional coding comprises a check sum.

9 . A method according to claim 1 wherein said acknowledgement of safe receipt comprises a message of predetermined length.

10 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein said control message comprises an instruction to activate or deactivate one or more carriers in a multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network.

11 . A method according to claim 10 , wherein said control message comprises an order to activate or deactivate reception of downlink carriers in a multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network.

12 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein said acknowledgement of safe receipt is transmitted on an existing control channel associated with a carrier.

13 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein said encoding comprises selection of a known codeword in response to receipt of said control message.

14 . A computer program product operable, when executed on a computer, to perform the method of claim 1 .

15 . A network node operable to acknowledge receipt of a control message instructing a change in carrier configuration in a multi-carrier wireless telecommunication network, said multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network comprising a plurality of network nodes operable to substantially simultaneously transmit and receive signals on more than one radio frequency carrier within a sector of said telecommunications network,

said network node comprising:

reception logic operable to receive said control message,

encoding logic operable to encode an acknowledgement of safe receipt of said control message, and

transmission logic operable to transmit said acknowledgement of safe receipt, and a predetermined period after said transmission of said acknowledgement of safe receipt, re-transmit said acknowledgement of safe receipt.