Patent ID: 8254946

Claim:
A method for a computing device to allocate frequency spectrum to a plurality of access terminals in a mobile communication system, the spectrum having a first number of segments, each segment having a second number of clusters of sub-carriers, the method comprising: assigning, by the computing device, at least one cluster from a first set of clusters to each of a first plurality of access terminals in a first sector/cell; and assigning, by the computing device, at least one cluster from a second set of clusters to each of a second plurality of access terminals in a second sector/cell, such that the at least one cluster assigned to the first plurality of access terminals in the first sector/cell has a frequency sub-carrier assignment pattern that includes at least one overlapping sub-carrier and at least one non-overlapping subcarrier with respect to the at least one cluster assigned to the second plurality of access terminals in the second sector/cell.