Methods and apparatus for wireless communications over subsets of contiguous subcarriers

A first user equipment (UE), comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first UE to perform operations including:
• performing, with a network controller, initial access to the network controller on a first subset of contiguous subcarriers of a carrier for communications between the first UE and the network controller, the performing of the initial access comprising:
• receiving, from the network controller, a message including configuration information of the first subset of contiguous subcarriers of the carrier;
• performing synchronization with the carrier within the first subset of contiguous subcarriers of the carrier and the initial access to the carrier within the first subset of contiguous subcarriers of the carrier;
• and
• after the performing the initial access to the network controller, transmitting an uplink transmission to the network controller or receiving in the carrier a downlink transmission from the network controller.

A network controller, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network controller to perform operations including:
• transmitting, to a first user equipment (UE), a message including configuration information of a first subset of contiguous subcarriers of a carrier, the first subset of contiguous subcarriers of the carrier supporting procedures of synchronization with the carrier and initial access to the carrier with the first UE;
• and
• after the initial access to the carrier, transmitting a downlink transmission to the UE or receiving in the carrier an uplink transmission from the UE.