Soft handoff for OFDM

A base station in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system comprising:

• encoding logic adapted to provide spatial coding of scheduled data to generate a plurality of spatially coded signals;
• transform logic adapted to provide a transform on each of the plurality of spatially coded signals to generate a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals, wherein during a soft handoff, each of the plurality of spatially coded signals is configured to result in corresponding orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals mapped into defined sub-bands in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing spectrum of sub-bands, the defined sub-bands not used by other base stations participating in the soft handoff;
• and
• transmit circuitry having a plurality of transmit paths to facilitate transmitting the plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals with spatial diversity for reception by the mobile terminal.

A method for facilitating soft handoffs in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system comprising:

• providing spatial coding of scheduled data to generate a plurality of spatially coded signals;
• generating a transform on each of the plurality of spatially coded signals to generate a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals, wherein during a soft handoff, each of the plurality of space-time coded signals is configured to result in corresponding orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals mapped into defined sub-bands in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing spectrum of sub-bands, the defined sub-bands not used by other base stations participating in the soft handoff;
• and
• transmitting the plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals with spatial diversity for reception by the mobile terminal.