Transmission of control information to reduced bandwidth terminals

A wireless communications network including an plurality of infrastructure equipment, configured to communicate data to mobile terminals, the infrastructure equipment being configured to:

• provide a wireless access interface for communicating the data using a plurality of OFDM sub-carriers;
• allocate first communications resources provided by a first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within a first frequency band to terminals of a first type,
• allocate second communications resources provided by a second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers to terminals of a second type within a second frequency band, the second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers being smaller than the first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers, and the second frequency band being selected from within the first frequency band to form a virtual carrier,
• provide a first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to the first frequency band,
• wherein allocating the first communications resources and allocating the second communications resources includes transmitting, via the first control channel, resource allocation messages allocating resources to the terminals of the first type over the first bandwidth corresponding to the combined first and second groups of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the resource allocation messages also allocate resources to the terminals of the second type over the second bandwidth corresponding to the second group of OFDM sub-carriers;
• provide a second control channel within the second frequency band within the second group of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the second control channel occupies a bandwidth that is different from a bandwidth occupied by a set of shared resources of the virtual carrier, and wherein the bandwidth occupied by the set of shared resources of the virtual carrier overlaps with only a part of the bandwidth occupied by the second control channel;
• and
• transmit, via the second control channel, control information that is specific to the terminals of the second type, wherein the control information includes at least one of an indication of a location, a bandwidth, and a center frequency of the virtual carrier.

An infrastructure equipment for forming part of a wireless communications network configured to communicate data to mobile terminals, the infrastructure equipment comprising circuitry configured to:

• provide a wireless access interface for communicating the data using a plurality of OFDM sub-carriers;
• allocate first communications resources provided by a first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within a first frequency band to terminals of a first type;
• allocate second communications resources provided by a second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers to terminals of a second type within a second frequency band, the second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers being smaller than the first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers, and the second frequency band being selected from within the first frequency band to form a virtual carrier;
• provide a first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to the first frequency band,
• wherein allocating the first communications resources and the allocating the second communications resources includes transmitting, via the first control channel, resource allocation messages allocating resources to the terminals of the first type over the first bandwidth corresponding to the combined first and second groups of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the resource allocation messages also allocate resources to the terminals of the second type over the second bandwidth corresponding to the second group of OFDM sub-carriers;
• provide a second control channel within the second frequency band within the second group of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the second control channel occupies a bandwidth that is different from a bandwidth occupied by a set of shared resources of the virtual carrier, and wherein the bandwidth occupied by the set of shared resources of the virtual carrier overlaps with only a part of the bandwidth occupied by the second control channel;
• and
• transmit, via the second control channel, control information that is specific to the terminals of the second type, wherein the control information includes at least one of an indication of a location of the virtual carrier, a bandwidth of the virtual carrier, and a center frequency of the virtual carrier.