Wireless telecommunications apparatus and methods

Circuitry for a transmitter entity for use in a wireless telecommunications system for communicating higher layer data to a receiver entity, wherein the circuitry comprises controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry configured to operate together such that the circuitry is operable to:

• establish an allocation of radio resources for the transmitterentity to use for transmitting higher layer data to the receiver entity during a higher layer data transmission period;
• transmit an indication of the allocated radio resources to the receiver entity;
• begin transmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity at the beginning of the higher layer data transmission period using the allocated radio resources;
• identify during the higher layer data transmission period whether any of the allocated radio resources which have not yet been used are needed by the transmitter entity for transmitting other data in the wireless telecommunications system, and if so, establish a subset of the allocated radio resources for the transmitter entity to use for transmitting the other data and transmit the other data using the subset of the allocated radio resources;
• and
• convey to the receiver entity during the higher layer data transmission period an indication of the subset of allocated radio resources used for the transmission of other data, wherein the indication includes a predefined signature sequence conveyed on a control channel region for the other data which is multiplexed along with a data channel for the other data into a data channel period of the allocation of radio resources in the higher layer data transmission period,
• wherein the predefined signature sequence is selected by the transmitter entity from among a plurality of predefined signature sequences according to whether the transmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity is a first transmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity or a retransmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity.

A method of operating a receiver entity in a wireless telecommunications system for receiving higher layer data from a transmitter entity, wherein the method comprises:

• receiving from the transmitter entity an indication of an allocation of radio resources for the receiver entity to use for receiving higher layer data from the transmitter entity during a higher layer data transmission period;
• receiving transmissions from the transmitter entity on the allocated radio resources;
• identifying whether any of the allocated radio resources in the higher layer data transmission period for the receiver entity are used by the transmitter entity for transmitting other data than the higher layer data for the receiver entity based on whether the transmitter entity conveys to the receiver entity during the higher layer data transmission period an indication of a subset of allocated radio resources used by the transmitter entity for the transmission of other data, wherein the indication includes a predefined signature sequence conveyed on a control channel region for the other data which is multiplexed along with a data channel for the other data into a data channel period of the allocation of radio resources in the higher layer data transmission period;
• and
• selecting the predefined signature sequence by the transmitter entity from among a plurality of predefined signature sequences according to whether the transmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity is a first transmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity or a retransmission of the higher layer data to the receiver entity.