Patent ID: 8325838

Claim:
A receiving apparatus operable in a wireless communication system, comprising: a receiving circuit configured for receiving from a transmitting apparatus an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal having a plurality of subcarriers allocated among one or more frequency channels comprising all or a part of a frequency band used by the transmitting apparatus for transmitting signals, wherein the one or more frequency channels correspond to a usable bandwidth of the receiving circuit, and wherein the OFDM signal comprises a data portion in which data to be received by the receiving apparatus is allocated to each of a plurality of used subcarriers, but not to a plurality of unused subcarriers, the unused subcarriers having been determined by the transmitting apparatus based on the usable bandwidth of the receiving circuit; wherein the OFDM signal further comprises a broadcast portion carrying broadcast information; wherein the broadcast information comprises an indirect indication of the positions of the unused subcarriers within the data portion of the OFDM signal, whereby the positions of the unused subcarriers within the data portion are mutually known between the transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus in relation to the indirect indication; signal processing components configured to demodulate the plurality of used subcarriers and to refrain from demodulating the plurality of unused subcarriers within the data portion; and signal transmitting components configured to notify the transmitting apparatus of the usable bandwidth.