Method for performing carrier management procedure in a multi-carrier supported wideband wireless communication system and apparatus for the same

A method for a multi-carrier supported base station to support a primary carrier change of a single-carrier supported mobile station, the method comprising:

• receiving a message indicating a support of a basic multi-carrier (MC) mode from the mobile station,
• wherein the basic MC mode includes operating the mobile station only with a single carrier with the mobile station being aware of a multi-carrier operation of the base station and capable of supporting the primary carrier change;
• transmitting a carrier management command message including an action code and an action time, to the mobile station on a serving carrier,
• wherein the action code indicates the primary carrier change, and the primary carrier change involves changing a primary carrier corresponding to the serving carrier for the mobile station to another carrier corresponding to a target carrier in the base station;
• receiving, in response to the carrier management command message, a confirmation message indicating readiness of signal transmission/reception through the target carrier from the mobile station on the target carrier;
• and
• transmitting a control signal and data to the mobile station on the target carrier,
• wherein the serving carrier and the target carrier are controlled by a single common Medium Access Control (MAC) of the base station.

A single-carrier supported mobile station for performing a primary carrier change with a multi-carrier supported base station, the mobile station comprising:

• a reception module;
• a transmission module;
• and
• a processor,
• wherein the processor is configured to:
• control the transmission module to transmit a message indicating a support of a basic multi-carrier (MC) mode to the base station,
• wherein the basic MC mode includes operating the mobile station only with a single carrier with the mobile station being aware of a multi-carrier operation of the base station and capable of supporting the primary carrier change,
• control the reception module to receive a carrier management command message including an action code and an action time, on a serving carrier of the base station,
• wherein the action code indicates the primary carrier change, and the primary carrier change involves changing a primary carrier corresponding to the serving carrier for the mobile station to another carrier corresponding to a target carrier in the base station,
• control the transmission module to transmit, in response to the carrier management command message, a confirmation message indicating readiness of signal transmission/reception through the target carrier of the base station on the target carrier of the base station, and
• control the reception module to receive a control signal and data from the base station on the target carrier of the base station,
• wherein the serving carrier and the target carrier are controlled by a single common Medium Access Control (MAC) of the base station.