Method and apparatus for communicating carrier configuration in multi-carrier OFDM systems

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• storing a data structure of global radio frequency (RF) carrier configuration information of all available RF carriers in a multi-carrier orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) network, wherein the data structure comprises:
• a number of carrier groups available in the OFDM network, wherein each carrier group comprises one or more contiguous RF carriers;
• and
• carrier group information for each carrier group, each carrier group information comprises:
• a multi-carrier configuration index that refers to global carrier configuration information contained in a carrier configuration lookup table;
• and
• a frequency assignment index that refers to a global frequency location contained in a frequency assignment lookup table.

A base station, comprising:

• a processor that provides global radio frequency (RF) carrier configuration information for all available RF carriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) network, wherein the global RF carrier configuration information comprises global carrier configuration information of multiple available RF carriers of different base stations in the OFDM network, and wherein each available RF carrier has a unique global physical carrier index;
• memory that stores the global RF carrier configuration information;
• and
• a transmitter that transmits a message that contains the global RF carrier configuration information.