Patent ID: 8204025

Claim:
A method of providing a frame for data communication in a communication system, comprising: generating a frame comprising a plurality of subframes, each subframe comprising one or more unit subframes, each unit subframe comprising a fixed length duration T u-sub ; generating and transmitting a frame synchronization signal and a frame control signal for controlling the subframes in the frame, wherein the frame further comprises a plurality of pointers, wherein the plurality of pointers are configured to provide location information corresponding to a plurality of start locations of the plurality of subframes; and generating directionality information for each subframe in the frame, wherein the frame synchronization signal and the frame control signal are located in a downlink subframe located at the beginning of the frame, wherein the frame control signal comprises the directionality information, a starting time location, and a time duration T sub for each subframe in the frame, and wherein the directionality information, the starting time location, and the time duration T sub for each subframe in the frame are selected from a set of predefined settings, and are not individually signaled.