Beacon symbols are sent periodically from the base stations in an OFDM system. The entire power of the base station, or a large portion of it is concentrated in these symbols, thus they are very easily recognized by the mobile stations. The frequencies upon which these symbols are transmitted and the time at which they are transmitted communicates information such as the base station/sector identity and the preferred carrier of the given base station/sector to the mobile station. In order to avoid collision between the beacon symbols of different base stations and sectors, the beacon symbols from different base stations/sectors are transmitted at different symbols times and on different subcarriers.