Patent ID: 7042858

Claim:
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system comprising: a) a base station controller adapted to schedule data for a mobile terminal during a soft handoff mode and deliver at least a portion of scheduled data for the mobile terminal to at least one of a plurality of base stations; and b) the plurality of base stations operatively associated with the base station controller, each base station participating in the soft handoff adapted to: i) receive the scheduled data for delivery to the mobile terminal; ii) provide space-time coding for the scheduled data to generate a plurality of space-time coded signals; iii) perform an Inverse Fourier Transform (IFT) on each of the plurality of space-time coded signals to generate a plurality of OFDM signals, each of the plurality of space-time coded signals configured to result in corresponding OFDM signals mapped into defined sub-bands in an OFDM spectrum of sub-bands, the defined sub-bands not used by other ones of the base stations participating in the soft handoff; and iv) transmit the plurality of OFDM signals with spatial diversity for reception by the mobile terminal.