Patent ID: 9356807
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A transmission method for use in a two-hop time-division-duplex wireless communication system, the system comprising a source apparatus, destination apparatuses and an intermediate apparatus, said source apparatus being configured to transmit information along two links forming an indirect communication path extending from the source apparatus to at least one of the destination apparatuses via the intermediate apparatus, and the intermediate apparatus being configured to receive information from the source apparatus and to transmit the received information to the at least one destination apparatus, a time-frequency format for downlink and uplink subframes used for transmission in the system in discrete transmission periods, each discrete transmission period being a single downlink or a single uplink subframe with a plurality of transmission zones within each transmission period, each zone occupying a different part of that period, and being assignable to said source or intermediate apparatus for use in transmission, the method comprising: transmitting information along the path as two successive transmission signals, link by link, said signals being transmitted using different zones of a particular transmission period; wherein: a control information zone in the particular transmission period is used for broadcast of control information from said source apparatus to said intermediate apparatus and said destination apparatuses; a first zone in the particular transmission period is used for transmission from said source apparatus to said intermediate apparatus and a second, subsequent zone in the particular transmission period is used for transmission from said intermediate apparatus to the at least one destination apparatus; said first and second transmission zones of the transmission period are either side in time of a third transmission zone of the transmission period, which is used for transmission along a single link forming a direct communication path from said source apparatus to another destination apparatus, and in which there is no transmission or reception by the intermediate apparatus, but processing is performed in said intermediate apparatus, so as to configure the information for transmission in the second transmission zone based upon the information received in the first transmission zone; said second zone is also used for direct transmission along a single link forming a direct communication path from said source apparatus to a further destination apparatus on the downlink; and said control information enables said intermediate apparatus and said destination apparatuses to receive transmissions in said first zone and said second zone, the method further comprising: employing said first transmission zone to transmit information from the source apparatus to a still further destination apparatus along a single link forming a direct communication path, so that information is transmitted from the source apparatus to both said intermediate apparatus and said still further destination apparatus during the part of the particular transmission period corresponding to the first transmission zone; determining whether the destination apparatuses can receive the control information from the source apparatus and adding an extra control information zone in the particular transmission period for broadcast of control information from said intermediate apparatus to said destination apparatus based on the determination.