Communication technologies have advanced at a rapid rate. Such advancements have permitted, amongst other things, the development and deployment of radio communication systems that permit data to be communicated at high communication throughput rates. Increasingly, data services, previously unavailable or only available by way of wired networks, are performed by way of a radio communication system that provide for high-speed data services. And, with continued advancements in communication technologies, the data throughput rates by which data is communicated shall likely yet further increase. For instance, the infrastructures of GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks that provide for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) have been widely deployed and widely utilized to effectuate data communications. An extension to the general GPRS communication scheme, referred to as EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution), is presently undergoing deployment. EDGE-capable communication systems permit data throughput rates that are significantly higher than those achievable in the predecessor GPRS systems.
While EDGE-capable systems represent a significant improvement in terms of achievable data throughput rates, there is a continuing need to increase yet further the achievable data throughput rates to permit increasingly data-intensive communication services to be performed in a timely manner.
Operation of an EDGE-capable communication system is set forth in a promulgation of an operating specification. The operating specification defines, amongst other things, the channel structure that is used in EDGE-based communications. Multiple carriers are available for use, sometimes defined logically in terms of mobile index allocation offsets. However, due various requirements, communication resources that are allocated upon which to communicate data to perform a communication service are allocated upon a single carrier. Communication resources, to date, are not allocated upon multiple carriers or, more generally, across a plurality of mobile allocation index offsets.
If a manner could be provided in a high-speed data radio communication system to utilize more fully communication resources available across a plurality of radio carriers, increased data throughput rates would be achievable.
It is in light of this background information that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.