Patent ID: 8175042

Claim:
A method, comprising: transmitting a downlink transmission to an intended client station and an intended relay station; if an acknowledgment is received from the intended client station that the intended client station has successfully decoded the downlink transmission, allowing another client station to transmit in an allocated data zone otherwise allocated for relay transmission, or in an acknowledgment zone, or combinations thereof, of an uplink subframe, the allocated data zone of the uplink subframe being previously allocated for relay transmission of the downlink transmission from the intended relay station to the intended client station, and the acknowledgement zone of the uplink subframe being previously allocated to the intended relay station for indicating successful or unsuccessful decoding of the downlink transmission by the intended relay station, the another client station not being the intended relay station, if a negative acknowledgment is received from the intended client station regarding decoding of the downlink transmission, and if an acknowledgment is received from the intended relay station that the relay station has successfully decoded the downlink transmission, allowing the relay station to transmit a relay transmission in the allocated data zone of the uplink subframe, and if a negative acknowledgment is received from the intended client station regarding decoding of the downlink transmission, and if a negative acknowledgment is received from the intended relay station regarding decoding of the downlink transmission, allowing the other client terminal to transmit in an allocated data zone or acknowledgment zone, or combinations thereof, of an uplink subframe.