Patent ID: 7822421

Claim:
A method of allocating an uplink wireless channel resource for use in a wireless multiple access communications system comprising at least one base station and a plurality of wireless terminals and including a downlink wireless channel resource in addition to said uplink wireless channel resource, the method comprising the steps of: partitioning said downlink wireless channel resource into at least an uplink assignment channel resource including a plurality of uplink assignment segments; partitioning said uplink wireless channel resource into an uplink traffic channel resource including a plurality of uplink traffic segments, wherein said partitioning of said downlink wireless channel resource into said plurality of uplink assignment segments and of said uplink wireless channel resource into said plurality of uplink traffic segments is in a fixed one-to-one manner with each uplink assignment segment corresponding to one of said plurality of uplink traffic segments, each particular uplink assignment segment starting prior to the traffic segment to which the particular uplink assignment segment corresponds; scheduling the assignment of said uplink traffic segments in accordance with a scheduling policy, said step of scheduling including determining which of said wireless terminals are active, if any, and are to transmit traffic data in an uplink traffic segment; transmitting an identifier that identifies a scheduled wireless terminal in an uplink assignment segment associated on said fixed one-to-one basis with a corresponding uplink traffic segment, the wireless terminal identified by the transmitted identifier being scheduled to use the uplink traffic segment corresponding to the assignment segment in which the identifier is transmitted; and receiving traffic data from said scheduled wireless terminal in said uplink traffic segment corresponding to the uplink assignment segment in which the identifier of the scheduled wireless terminal is transmitted.