Patent ID: 9615354
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04W

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: controlling, at least partially, communication links within a cell associated with a base station of a cellular telecommunication system, wherein the communication links comprise a first set of communication links established between terminal devices and the base station and a second set of communication links established directly between the terminal devices according to one or more radio access technologies selected from a plurality of radio access technologies supported by the terminal devices for the second set of communication links; selecting one or more of the terminal devices to be used as a relay terminal, the selecting being made adaptively according to communication environment in the cell and according to received information on capabilities of the terminal devices; selecting one or more of the terminal devices to be a non-relay terminal; sending a transmission configured to at least partially configure the one or more selected relay terminals, the one or more selected relay terminals forming a first portion of the terminal devices within the cell, to establish one or more relay links between the base station and the one or more non-relay terminals, and where the non-relay terminals form a different second portion of the terminal devices within the cell; and configuring the base station to transmit information elements directly to the non-relay terminals within the cell, where the information elements transmitted directly from the base station to the non-relay terminals are configured to enable the one or more non-relay terminals to establish a communication link of the second set to at least one of the one or more relay terminals, wherein the information elements indicate which radio access technology or technologies are used for the second set of communication links.