Patent ID: 8599736

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: receive acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement messages from a plurality of relay stations, wherein the acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement messages are indicative of whether or not a relay station successfully decodes a data packet transmission from a mobile station; select at least two relay stations from the plurality of relay stations; determine a transmission mode for cooperatively forwarding the data packet by the selected relay stations to a base station; schedule a resource allocation for a selected relay station based at least in part on the transmission mode; and notify the selected relay stations of the resource allocation by using a domain order message to instruct the selected relay stations to use a frequency-domain-first approach or a time-domain-first approach; wherein according to the frequency-domain-first approach the selected relay stations fill a first symbol in a frequency domain first, and then move to a second symbol in a time domain; wherein according to the time-domain-first approach the selected relay stations fill a first subcarrier in the time domain first, and then move to a second subcarrier in the frequency domain; and wherein the determine or the select is based on (a) a link quality of the selected relay stations and a mobile station, (b) a resource situation of the selected relay stations, and (c) a received acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement message.