Radio-link reliability using multi-carrier capability in wireless broadband systems

1. A method for multicarrier switching to be performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

associating the UE with a base station (BS), wherein the UE is configured for contemporaneous communication with the BS over a plurality of carriers, the plurality of carriers including a single primary carrier on which the UE is to receive security information via Media Access Control (MAC) signaling and one or more secondary carriers on which the UE does not receive security information via MAC signaling;

establishing MAC layer security and mobility contexts using the security information received on the primary carrier;

monitoring a link quality on the primary carrier;

detecting degradation of the link quality on the primary carrier;

determining, upon detecting the degradation, that recovery on the primary carrier is not possible;

declaring, based on the determination that recovery on the primary carrier is not possible, a radio link failure (RLF) on the primary carrier, wherein the RLF is declared by the UE;

selecting a target secondary carrier from the one or more secondary carriers; and

establishing a new primary carrier on the target secondary carrier; and

communicating with the new primary carrier using the MAC layer security and mobility contexts.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE is configured to communicate using a mobile WiMAX protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RLF is transmitted to the BS.

4. The method of claim 1 , further including receiving a keep-alive probe from the BS to re-establish communications with the UE on the primary carrier.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target secondary carrier is an alternate carrier with a valid integrity protection from a previously established security context.

6. A user equipment (UE) comprising a media access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer, wherein the UE is configured to contemporaneously communicate on a plurality of carriers including a single primary carrier on which the UE is to receive security information via MAC signaling and one or more secondary carriers on which the UE does not receive security information via MAC signaling, wherein the UE is further configured to perform multicarrier switching between the primary carrier and the one or more secondary carriers by:

detecting degradation of a link quality on the primary carrier,

attempting a recovery procedure on the primary carrier,

determining that the recovery procedure on the primary carrier was unsuccessful,

identifying the one or more secondary carriers,

selecting a target secondary carrier from the one or more secondary carriers, and

establishing a new primary carrier on the target secondary carrier.

7. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the UE is configured to communicate using a long term evolution (LTE) protocol.

8. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the multicarrier switching further comprises declaring a radio link failure (RLF).

9. The UE of claim 8 , wherein the multicarrier switching further comprises transmitting the RLF to a base station.

10. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the UE is further configured to receive a keep-alive probe from a base station to re-establish communications with the UE on the primary carrier.

11. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the UE further comprises multiple antennas.

12. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the primary carrier and the secondary carrier are managed by a common MAC layer.