Patent ID: 8923187

Claim:
A wireless communication method in a system in which subscriber stations are each operable for communication with a base station, the base station being capable of performing simultaneous communications with a plurality of the subscriber stations simultaneously by exchange of packets each conforming with a layered protocol of said system, the packets comprising a first portion for defining physical layer (PHY) parameters and a second portion for defining media access layer (MAC) parameters, and communications between the subscriber stations and the base station being performed wholly or partly through at least one relay station, the method comprising steps of, in the relay station: receiving a plurality of packets from the subscriber stations; detecting the second portion of each of the packets; combining the detected second portions to form a second portion of at least one new packet; and transmitting the new packet to the base station, wherein: the second portion of each packet includes error-checking information, and said detecting step comprises checking the error-checking information of packets received from the subscriber stations and discarding any packets thereby found to have been incorrectly received; and the combining comprises removing the error-checking information from the second portion of each received packet and linking the remainder of each second portion to form the second portion of the new packet.