Patent attributes
An apparatus that communicates in a mobile radio communications network, comprises signal-processing circuitry for provisioning a consecutive series of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers for uplink or downlink communications; provisioning a plurality of different selectable subcarrier spacings for the consecutive series of OFDM subcarriers; performing discrete Fourier transform (DFT) coding on a plurality of data symbols to produce DFT coded symbols; and performing an inverse-DFT on the coded symbols to produce a single-carrier frequency division multiple access signal that comprises a sum of the consecutive series of OFDM subcarriers. The single-carrier frequency division multiple access signal is provided with a particular one of a set of different symbol periods by selecting one of the plurality of different selectable subcarrier spacings.