Patent ID: 8160006

Claim:
A method for configuring a superframe for providing a relay service in a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of: configuring the superframe having an ith frame and an (i+1)th frame, wherein the ith frame and (i+1)th frame are each divided into first and second subframes; configuring, by an odd-hop Relay Station (RS), a first resource allocation region of a first section of the first and second subframes of the ith frame and a first section of the first and second subframes of the (i+1)th frame for communication between the odd-hop RS and a first Mobile Station (MS) within a coverage area of the odd-hop RS; configuring, by the odd-hop RS, a second resource allocation region of a second section of the first and second subframes of the (i+1)th frame for communication between the odd-hop RS and an even-hop RS of the wireless communication system; configuring, by the even-hop RS, a third resource allocation region of the first section of the first and second subframes of the ith and (i+1)th frames for communication between the even-hop RS and a second MS that is within the coverage area of the even-hop RS; and configuring, by the even-hop RS, a fourth resource allocation region of a second section of the first and second subframes of the (i)th frame for communication between the even-hop RS and a next odd-hop RS.