Patent ID: 7990906

Claim:
A method of structuring a time frame for a relay station operating in a mobile Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) network, comprising: dividing a downlink sub-frame of the time frame into a first allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between a base station in the network and the relay station, a second allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between the base station and a mobile station in the network, and a third allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between the relay station and the mobile station; dividing an uplink sub-frame of the time frame into a first allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between the mobile station and the relay station, a second allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between the mobile station and the base station, and a third allocated time zone dedicated for transmission between the relay station and the base station; and selectively transmitting and/or receiving signals, by the relay station, during the first and third allocated time zones of the downlink sub-frame and the first and third allocated time zones of the uplink sub-frame.