Patent ID: 7929962

Claim:
A method for managing radio resources in a wireless communication system that supports a plurality of scalable bandwidths, each of the scalable bandwidths being centered on a selected center frequency and each of the scalable bandwidths supporting a different number of parallel coherent bandwidths, wherein each coherent bandwidth is temporally divided into resource blocks, comprising: tuning an access terminal to the selected center frequency of the plurality of scalable bandwidths; transmitting, from the access terminal on one of the scalable bandwidths, at least one reference signal at a first rate during an active state such that said at least one reference signal is transmitted in a portion of each resource block of each of the parallel coherent bandwidths; and transmitting, from the access terminal on said one of the scalable bandwidths, said at least one reference signal at a second rate during an idle period such that said at least one reference signal is transmitted in a portion of one resource block of one of the parallel coherent bandwidths per time interval and said at least one reference signal is not transmitted in the other resource blocks of the remaining parallel coherent bandwidths during this time interval, and wherein said one of the parallel coherent bandwidths used to transmit said at least one reference signal changes in successive time intervals.