Method and apparatus for interleaving sequence elements of an OFDMA synchronization channel

A method in a wireless communication system, the method comprising the step of transmitting an orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) signal including a synchronization channel signal, the synchronization channel signal comprising a plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements and the OFDMA signal comprising a plurality of OFDMA symbol periods, wherein the plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements are distributed over more than one of the plurality of OFDMA symbol periods.

An orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) base station comprising:

• a synchronization channel generator generating a synchronization channel signal comprising a plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements;
• and
• transmitter circuitry transmitting an OFDMA signal comprising a plurality of subcarriers, wherein the transmitter circuitry is coupled to the synchronization channel generator and transmits the OFDMA signal comprising the plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements distributed over a portion of the plurality of subcarriers.

An orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) base station comprising:

• a synchronization channel generator generating a synchronization channel signal comprising a plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements;
• and
• transmitter circuitry transmitting an OFDMA signal comprising a plurality of OFDMA symbol periods, wherein the transmitter circuitry is coupled to the synchronization channel generator and transmits the OFDMA signal comprising the plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements distributed over more than one of the plurality of OFDMA symbol periods.

A wireless communication receiver for receiving orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) signals comprising:

• receiver circuitry receiving and demodulating OFDMA signals, the receiver circuitry comprising a filter filtering the OFDMA signals to isolate a bandwidth of the OFDMA signals which includes a synchronization channel signal, the synchronization channel signal comprising a plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements;
• and
• a controller coupled to the receiver circuitry and decoding the synchronization channel signal in response to detecting and decoding the plurality of synchronization channel signal sequence elements distributed over a portion of the OFDMA signals.