Communications devices, infrastructure equipment and methods

A method performed by a machine-type communications (MTC) device configured to operate within a limited bandwidth of a wireless access interface provided by infrastructure equipment, the method comprising:

• receiving signals transmitted by the infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network in accordance with a downlink of the wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, wherein the wireless access interface includes communications resources for allocation to the communications device on the downlink, the communications resources comprising frequency resources, and time resources in which the wireless access interface is divided into predetermined time-divided units;
• transmitting, to the infrastructure equipment, a relative capability of the MTC device prior to receiving a plurality of sub-units of an encoded transport block, the relative capability being a capability of the MTC device to combine repeated transmissions;
• receiving the plurality of sub-units of the encoded transport block of data in a plurality of time-divided units within a physical resource block of the wireless access interface allocated to the MTC device, each of the sub-units being received in the physical resource block a repeated number of times within a repetition cycle;
• and
• combining a same sub-unit received the repeated number of times to form a composite sub-unit to recover the transport block.

A machine-type communications (MTC) terminal comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive signals transmitted by an infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network in accordance with a wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, wherein the MTC device is configured to operate within a limited bandwidth of the wireless access interface and
• the MTC terminal is configured to
• control the receiver to receive data via a downlink of the wireless access interface, Wherein the wireless access interface includes communications resources for allocation to the communications device on the downlink, the communications resources comprising frequency resources, and time resources in which the wireless access interface is divided into predetermined time-divided units;
• control transmitting, to the infrastructure equipment, a relative capability of the MTC terminal prior to receiving a plurality of sub-units of an encoded transport block, the relative capability being a capability of the communications device to combine repeated transmissions;
• control the receiver to receive the plurality of sub-units of the encoded transport block of data in a plurality of time-divided units within a physical resource block of the wireless access interface allocated to the MTC terminal, each of the sub-units being received in the physical resource block a repeated number of times within a repetition cycle;
• and
• combine a same sub-unit received the repeated number of times to form a composite sub-unit to recover the transport block.

A machine-type communication (MTC) terminal configured to operate within a limited bandwidth of a wireless access interface provided by infrastructure equipment, the MTC terminal comprising:

• a transmitter configured to transmit, to infrastructure equipment, a relative capability of the MTC terminal prior to receiving a plurality of sub-units of an encoded transport block, the relative capability being a capability of the communications device to combine repeated transmissions;
• a receiver configured to receive the plurality of sub-units of the encoded transport block of data in a plurality of time-divided units within a physical resource block of the wireless access interface allocated to the mobile terminal, each of the sub-units being received in the physical resource block a repeated number of times within a repetition cycle;
• and
• circuitry configured to combine a same sub-unit received the repeated number of times to form a composite sub-unit to recover the transport block.