Fast cell synchronization for beyond 3G OFDMA based system

The 3GPP Long Term Evaluation project is looking at the possibility of application of OFDM in the downlink, in order to support a high downlink data rates 100 Mbps. In this Evolved UTRA, a fast cell search is necessary because besides considering the 900-MHz frequency band GSM spectrum and the WCDMA-3G spectrum; an additional spectrum is to be used. Multiple transmission bandwidths from 1.25 to 20 MHz will be used in the Evolved UTRA and UTRAN; thus UE's with different bandwidth capabilities and BTS's with different frequency bandwidth capabilities need to be considered. In this paper, we propose an idea, for an initial cell search, through which a fast symbol and sub-frame synchronization, is possible. The proposed downlink control channel would eliminate the need to use Pilot channels for channel estimation. We propose to use new channel - BBCH (Basic Broadcast Channel), which will be used for transmission of limited system information, for the UE to move to the allocated spectrum, and which will reduce the overhead of frame synchronization for initial cell access.