Lte-m carrier placement with guard band in nr band

A method for communicating in a wireless communication network, comprising:

• transmitting or receiving, via transceiver circuitry, using a Long Term Evolution—Machine Type Communication (LTE-M) carrier within the bandwidth of a New Radio (NR) carrier with guard bands that are immediately adjacent to each end of the LTE-M carrier and that fit entirely within the NR bandwidth,
• wherein the center of the LTE-M carrier is aligned with an NR subcarrier on an NR raster grid, and wherein a maximum number of subcarriers in the LTE-M carrier align with subcarriers in NR, and
• wherein the center of the LTE-M carrier is located within the NR bandwidth such that:
• a minimum number of NR resource blocks are occupied by any part of the LTE-M carrier and the guard bands at each end, given a predetermined bandwidth for each of the guard bands;
• or
• given a predetermined number of NR resource blocks that can be occupied by any part of the LTE-M carrier and the guard bands at each end, a minimum guard band bandwidth from each end of the LTE-M carrier to the respective immediately adjacent NR resource block not occupied by any of part of the LTE-M carrier and the guard bands at each end is maximized.

A user equipment comprising:

• transceiver circuitry;
• and
• processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:
• transmit or receive, via the transceiver circuitry, using a Long Term Evolution (LTE) carrier within the bandwidth of a New Radio (NR) carrier with guard bands that are immediately adjacent to each end of the LTE carrier and that fit entirely within the NR bandwidth,
• wherein the center of the LTE carrier is aligned with an NR subcarrier on a 100 kHz NR raster grid, and wherein a maximum number of subcarriers in the LTE carrier align with subcarriers in NR,
• wherein the center of the LTE carrier is located within the NR bandwidth such that:
• a minimum number of NR resource blocks are occupied by any part of the LTE carrier and the guard bands at each end, given a predetermined bandwidth for each of the guard bands;
• and/or
• given a predetermined number of NR resource blocks that can be occupied by any part of the LTE carrier and the guard bands at each end, a minimum guard band bandwidth from each end of the LTE carrier to the respective immediately adjacent NR resource block not occupied by any of part of the LTE carrier and the guard bands is maximized.