Telecommunications apparatuses and methods

1. A method of transmitting an acknowledgment signal in a mobile telecommunications system, the system comprising a base station and a terminal operable to communicate with the base station via a wireless interface, the wireless interface having a first frequency band and a second frequency band, wherein the first frequency band is different from the second frequency band and the method comprises:

determining that, at a time t, an acknowledgment signal is to be transmitted by the base station to the terminal in the second frequency band;

determining that, at the time t, a downlink signal is to be transmitted to the terminal to cause a collision between the acknowledgment signal and the downlink signal, wherein the downlink signal is to be transmitted to the terminal in a first frequency band; and

in response to determination that, at the time t, the acknowledgment signal is to be transmitted and the downlink signal is to be transmitted to cause the collision, transmitting a multiplexed signal by multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal and transmitting the multiplexed signal in the first frequency band.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

if, at the time t, a downlink signal is not to be transmitted to the terminal in the first frequency band, then transmitting the acknowledgment signal in the second frequency band.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the terminal is operable to receive signals transmitted in a frequency band having a bandwidth that does not exceed bandwidth threshold and wherein the first and the second frequency bands together spread across a combined bandwidth larger than the bandwidth threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the downlink signal is transmitted using a repetition scheme for repeating one or more downlink signal symbols a plurality of times within the downlink signal for increasing a total received power for the one or more downlink signal symbols.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acknowledgment signal is transmitted using a repetition scheme for repeating one or more acknowledgment signal symbols a plurality of times within the acknowledgment signal for increasing a total received power for the one or more downlink signal symbols.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting that the signal received by the terminal in the first frequency band is a multiplexed signal; and

de-multiplexing the received signal to extract the downlink signal and the acknowledgment signal.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the detecting is based on one or more of:

receiving an indication that the signal transmitted in the first frequency band is a multiplexed signal; and

identifying that an acknowledgment signal is expected by the terminal at time t′ and that the terminal is receiving, at time t′, a downlink signal in the first frequency band.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the de-multiplexing is based on one or more of:

receiving multiplexing information for identifying a de-multiplexing scheme; and

one or more parameters configured in the base station.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the multiplexing information is for identifying a de-multiplexing scheme for one or more of:

the multiplexed signal only;

the multiplexed signal and a further multiplexed signal generated by multiplexing a further downlink signal and a further acknowledgment signal, the further multiplexed signal being transmitted by the base station.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting, before time t and by the base station, a control signal to the terminal via a third frequency band;

wherein the control signal comprises one or more of:

an indication that a multiplexing scheme has been applied to the multiplexed signal transmitted in the first frequency band; and

an indication of a multiplexing scheme applied to the multiplexed signal.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the third frequency band is the same as the first frequency band, the same as the second frequency band or different from the first and second frequency bands.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiplexing of the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal comprises:

from time t, pausing the transmission of the downlink signal and transmitting the acknowledgment signal in the first frequency band;

once the acknowledgement signal has been transmitted, resuming the transmission of the downlink signal in the first frequency band.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiplexing of the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal comprises:

transmitting the downlink signal in resources elements in a first frequency sub-band of the first frequency band;

transmitting the acknowledgment signal in resource elements in a second frequency sub-band of the first frequency band, wherein the second frequency sub-band is separate from the first frequency sub-band.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiplexing of the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal comprises one or more of:

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal at a resource element mapping level;

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal prior to a rate matching stage;

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal after a turbo coding stage;

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal prior to a scrambling stage;

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal after a rate matching stage;

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal prior to a Cyclic Redundancy Check “CRC” stage; and

multiplexing the acknowledgment signal with the downlink signal at a “CRC” stage wherein the CRC for the downlink signal is masked by a mask which is dependent on the acknowledgment signal carrying a positive or a negative acknowledgment.

15. A terminal for use in a mobile telecommunications system, the system comprising a base station and the terminal operable to communicate with the base station via a wireless interface, wherein the terminal comprises a transmitter, a receiver and a controller, the controller being configured to:

receive via the receiver a first signal in a first frequency band;

detect that the received signal is a multiplexed signal multiplexing a downlink signal with an acknowledgment signal and that the received signal is received at a time at which the downlink signal and the acknowledgment signal were expected in an absence of multiplexing; and

de-multiplex the received signal to extract the downlink signal and the acknowledgment signal.

16. A method of operating a terminal in a mobile telecommunications system, the system comprising a base station and the terminal operable to communicate with the base station via a wireless interface, wherein the method comprises:

receiving a first signal in a first frequency band;

detecting that the received signal is a multiplexed signal multiplexing a downlink signal with an acknowledgment signal and that the received signal is received at a time at which the downlink signal and the acknowledgment signal were expected in an absence of multiplexing; and

de-multiplexing the received signal to extract the downlink signal and the acknowledgment signal.