Patent ID: 7818009

Claim:
A method of channel allocation in a cellular communications system, including the steps of: a. allocating a common channel to a plurality of user terminals within a cluster of n adjacent cells, without allocating said common channel to user terminals in other cells adjacent to said cluster, wherein each cell of a group of three cells within said cluster is adjacent to each other cell of said group of three cells; b. receiving a respective plurality of temporally overlapping transmissions within said common channel from said plurality of user terminals in the same cell or adjacent cells within the cluster; and c. separately decoding each of said plurality of overlapping transmissions by means of a multi-user detection technique, wherein said common channel comprises a plurality of m timeslots within a bearer, and in each of said m time slots, up to n user signals for n cells are transmitted, such that said common channel supports up to n*m transmissions.