Patent ID: 7859988

Claim:
A method of reducing cyclic prefix length for an OFDM symbol in a preamble, the method comprising the steps of: sending a first section of the preamble from a base station, the first section comprising a first broadcast channel and occupying a first number of OFDM symbols in the preamble; sending a second section of the preamble from the base station, the second section comprising acquisition pilots and occupying a remaining number of OFDM symbols in the preamble; at the base station, applying a first cyclic prefix length on a last OFDM symbol in the first section; at the base station, applying a known second cyclic prefix length on a first OFDM symbol in the second section; sending the first broadcast channel on the last OFDM symbol in the first section, the first broadcast channel being followed by the first OFDM symbol in the second section; indicating the first cyclic prefix length by a first indicator in the first broadcast channel; and determining at a receiver a location of the first broadcast channel by first performing time synchronization operation using a known FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) size and the known second cyclic prefix length.