Patent ID: 8204507

Claim:
A method of wireless communications between a wireless communications network and wireless user equipment, the method comprising: selecting a first node of the wireless communications network as a serving node for the user equipment; using the serving node for transmissions in a first direction between the user equipment and the wireless communications network; selecting a second node of the wireless communications network as a supplemental node; and using the supplemental node for transmissions in a second direction between the wireless communications network and the user equipment; wherein selecting the second node includes selecting a second node of the wireless communications network that receives a stronger uplink signal from the user equipment than the serving node as the supplemental node; wherein selecting the second node further comprises selecting one or more nodes of the wireless communication network such that the one or more nodes and the second node serve as a plurality of uplink supplemental nodes, forming an uplink supplemental node set; wherein transmissions in the first direction are downlink transmissions from the serving node to the user equipment; wherein transmissions in the second direction are uplink transmissions from the user equipment to the supplemental node; wherein using the supplemental node for transmissions between the wireless communications network and the user equipment comprises sending uplink scheduling parameters from the serving node to the supplemental node; and wherein using the supplemental node further comprises receiving uplink transmissions from the user equipment by the uplink supplemental nodes in the uplink supplemental node set.