Patent ID: 8493926

Claim:
A base station for supporting at least a first user equipment (UE) of a plurality of UEs in a cellular communication system, the base station comprising: a controller arranged to broadcast base station duplex capability information to the plurality of UEs, using a common transmission format, wherein the base station duplex capability information indicates a duplex capability related to uplink and downlink carrier capability of the base station, the common transmission format having a signal structure common to a plurality of duplex modes; and a receiver arranged to receive an initial access message from the at least first UE if there is a match between a duplex capability of the first UE and the duplex capability of the base station, wherein a first of the plurality of duplex modes is a frequency division duplex (FDD) mode using paired uplink and downlink frequency carriers such that a same carrier frequency is not used for both uplink and downlink and a second of the plurality of duplex modes is a time division duplex (TDD) mode using a single frequency carrier for uplink and downlink, and the base station receives the initial access message sent in the uplink frequency carrier for the FDD mode or the single frequency carrier for the TDD mode depending on a matched duplex mode.