Patent ID: 7193982

Claim:
A base station far providing flexible data rate transmission in a telecommunications system comprising: an interface operable to receive an incoming data stream; a signal processor coupled to the interface, the signal processor operable to: receive the incoming data stream from the interface; select an operating downlink chip rate from at least two chip rates, wherein the first of the two chip rates is equal to a fraction n/p, of the second of the chip rates where n/p is selected from ½, ⅖, ⅓, ¼, and ⅕; select a spreading factor; spread the incoming data stream into a spread data stream with a channelization code; segment the incoming data stream into one or more frames, each frame comprising one or more slots; set the number of slots within the frame to 15, if n/p is equal to ½ or ¼; set the number of slots within the frame to 10, if n/p is equal to ⅓; and set the number of slots to 12, if n/p is equal to ⅕ or ⅖, and a transmitter coupled to the signal processor, the transmitter operable to receive the spread data stream from the signal processor and transmit the spread data stream over an air interface.