Patent ID: 8694013

Claim:
A communication device operable to communicate with a number of user devices using a plurality of communication resources that include control channel resources and data channel resources, wherein the communications device comprises a control channel resource allocator having partition data that defines a partition of the control channel resources into an uplink sub-set and a downlink sub-set, and wherein the control channel resource allocator is operable to use the partition data to control allocation of said control channel resources so that resource allocation messages for uplink user devices are transmitted using the control channel resources in the uplink sub-set and so that resource allocation messages for downlink user devices are transmitted using the control channel resources in the downlink sub-set, wherein the control channel resource allocator is operable to receive: i) data defining a plurality of user devices that have uplink data to be transmitted to the communications device; ii) data defining a plurality of user devices for which the communications device has downlink data to be transmitted; and iii) data defining, for each user device, control channel elements that the user device will scan for resource allocation messages; and wherein the control channel resource allocator is operable to use the received data to select a subset of said user devices that have uplink data to be transmitted to the communications device, as said uplink user devices and to select a subset of said user devices for which the communications device has downlink data to be transmitted, as said downlink user devices.