Telecommunications apparatus and methods

1. A method of operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunications system for communicating with network infrastructure equipment in accordance with a first radio access technology on a primary cell supporting a primary component carrier on radio resources within a first frequency band and a secondary cell supporting a secondary component carrier on radio resources within a second frequency band, wherein the terminal device is also operable to use radio resources within the second frequency band for communicating in accordance with a second radio access technology, wherein the method comprises:

receiving from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology;

establishing a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology;

determining if there is an overlap in the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology and the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology, and if so, transmitting signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap; and

receiving from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of an updated configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology in response to transmitting the signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap,

wherein the terminal device is operable to transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate a potential for inter-frequency interference arising between different frequencies associated with different radio access technologies supported by the terminal device using an inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message having a predefined format, and wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap conforms to the inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message format.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining if the radio resources associated with the updated configuration includes radio resources in respect of which the indication of the overlap is transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment, and if so, classifying the updated configuration as an invalid configuration or as an unsupported configuration.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining if the radio resources associated with the updated configuration includes radio resources in respect of which the indication of the overlap is transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment, and if so, reverting to a radio resource control, RRC, idle mode in respect of the secondary component carrier.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving from the network infrastructure equipment an indication that the configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology is no longer valid.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap is associated with an indication of the radio resources in respect of which the overlap applies.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the terminal device is operable to use radio resources within the second frequency band for communicating in accordance with a number of different radio access technologies which are different to the first radio access technology, and wherein the signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap further comprises an indication of the second radio access technology in respect of which the overlap has been determined.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap comprises radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap comprises a message conforming to the predefined inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message format with an information element selectively set to a value to indicate whether or not there is an overlap in respect of radio resources identified in the message.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the information element is dedicated to the purpose of indicating whether or not there is an overlap in respect of radio resources identified in the message.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the info, information element is associated with indicating an aspect of potential inter-frequency interference arising between different frequencies associated with different radio access technologies supported by the terminal device, and in the case of overlap is set to a value which is different from the values used when the information element is used to indicate an aspect of potential inter-frequency interference.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the aspect of potential inter-frequency interference with which the information element is associated in accordance with the predefined inter-frequency IDC message format is an indication of the direction of interference between the different radio access technologies.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap comprises a channel quality indicator, CQI, message in respect of the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology, wherein a predefined value for the CQI message is selected to indicate there is an overlap in respect of the radio resources to which the CQI message applies.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the terminal device determines if there is an overlap in radio resources according to the different configurations in accordance with a monitoring schedule which is initiated in response to receiving from the network infrastructure equipment the indication of the configuration of radio resources for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving from the network infrastructure equipment at least one further indication of at least one further configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology; and

determining if there is an overlap in the radio resources associated with the at least one further configuration and the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology, and

wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap further indicates the configuration of radio resources for communications within the second frequency band in accordance with the first radio access technology to which the overlap applies.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the terminal device releasing the configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology in response to determining there is an overlap in the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology and the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second frequency band comprises radio resources which are shared with wireless communication devices that are not part of the wireless telecommunications system.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second radio access technology is a non-cellular telecommunications radio access technology.

18. A terminal device for use in a wireless telecommunications system for communicating with network infrastructure equipment in accordance with a first radio access technology on a primary cell supporting a primary component carrier on radio resources within a first frequency band and a secondary cell supporting a secondary component carrier on radio resources within a second frequency band, wherein the terminal device is further operable to use radio resources within the second frequency band for communicating in accordance with a second radio access technology, and wherein the terminal device comprises a controller unit and a transceiver unit configured to operate together to:

receive from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology;

establish a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology;

determine if there is an overlap in the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology and the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology, and if so, transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap;

receive from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of an updated configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology in response to transmitting the signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap; and

transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate a potential for inter-frequency interference arising between different frequencies associated with different radio access technologies supported by the terminal device using an inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message having a predefined format, and wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap conforms to the inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message format.

19. Circuitry for a terminal device in a wireless telecommunications system for communicating with network infrastructure equipment in accordance with a first radio access technology on a primary cell supporting a primary component carrier on radio resources within a first frequency band and a secondary cell supporting a secondary component carrier on radio resources within a second frequency band, wherein the terminal device is further operable to use radio resources within the second frequency band for communicating in accordance with a second radio access technology, wherein the circuitry comprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured to operate together to:

receive from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology;

establish a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology;

determine if there is an overlap in the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology and the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology, and if so, transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap;

receive from the network infrastructure equipment an indication of an updated configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology in response to transmitting the signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap; and

transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate a potential for inter-frequency interference arising between different frequencies associated with different radio access technologies supported by the terminal device using an inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message having a predefined format, and wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap conforms to the inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message format.

20. A method of operating network infrastructure equipment in a wireless telecommunications system for communicating with a terminal device in accordance with a first radio access technology on a primary cell supporting a primary component carrier on radio resources within a first frequency band and a secondary cell supporting a secondary component carrier on radio resources within a second frequency band, wherein the terminal device is further operable to use radio resources within the second frequency band for communicating in accordance with a second radio access technology, wherein the method comprises:

establishing a configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology;

transmitting to the terminal device an indication of the configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology;

receiving from the terminal device an indication of an overlap in the radio resources configured for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the first radio access technology and radio resources which the terminal device has established are needed for use by the terminal device for communications in accordance with the second radio access technology;

establishing a replacement configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology, wherein the replacement configuration is selected to avoid radio resources in respect of which the overlap is indicated; and

transmitting to the terminal device an indication of the replacement configuration of radio resources within the second frequency band for use by the terminal device for communications with the network infrastructure equipment in accordance with the first radio access technology,

wherein the terminal device is operable to transmit signalling to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate a potential for inter-frequency interference arising between different frequencies associated with different radio access technologies supported by the terminal device using an inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message having a predefined format, and wherein the signalling transmitted to the network infrastructure equipment to indicate there is an overlap conforms to the inter-frequency in-device coexistence, IDC, message format.