Various communication systems support simultaneous access to a communication channel by multiple users. For example, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is a multi-user access scheme in which each individual user is assigned a small portion of the system bandwidth at a given time interval. OFDMA can be used in a variety of applications such as, for example, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, providing connectivity among devices in an Internet of Things (IoT) network, and the like.
An example technology supporting OFDMA is the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)—Machine Type Communications (MTC), including enhanced-MTC (eMTC) and Narrow-Band IoT (NB-IoT). LTE-MTC is being developed as part of the 3GPP Release-13, which is specified, for example, in a Technical Specification entitled “LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation,” 3GPP TS 36.211, version 13.1.0, Release 13, April, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference. An important goal in the 3GPP Release-13 specifications was to develop a low-complexity/low-cost mobile terminal that operates at a reduced bandwidth compared to legacy mobile terminals, yet being served (together with other mobile terminals) by a network which operates at a wider bandwidth.
The description above is presented as a general overview of related art in this field and should not be construed as an admission that any of the information it contains constitutes prior art against the present patent application.