Band scan for narrowband communications

A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
• start a scan of an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) configured for performing a narrowband communication;
• determine, based on a spectral characteristic of a phase of a signal in the ARFCN, whether a cellular communication is deployed in the ARFCN;
• terminate the scan of the ARFCN in response to the spectral characteristic of the phase of the signal in the ARFCN indicating that the cellular communication is deployed in the ARFCN;
• and
• proceed with a synchronization signal search on the ARFCN in response to the spectral characteristic of the phase of the signal in the ARFCN indicating that the cellular communication is not deployed in the ARFCN.

A computer-readable medium storing computer executable code, comprising code to:

• start a scan of an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) configured for performing a narrowband communication;
• determine, based on a spectral characteristic of a phase of a signal in the ARFCN, whether a cellular communication is deployed in the ARFCN;
• terminate the scan of the ARFCN in response to the spectral characteristic of the phase of the signal in the ARFCN indicating that the cellular communication is deployed in the ARFCN;
• and
• proceed with a synchronization signal search on the ARFCN in response to the spectral characteristic of the phase of the signal in the ARFCN indicating that the cellular communication is not deployed in the ARFCN.