Patent ID: 8670363

Claim:
A method of sending data in a cellular communication system, comprising: multiplexing data for broadcast and multicast services and data for unicast services on radio resources available for downlink transmission; and periodically sending scheduling information used to determine the radio resources carrying the broadcast and multicast services wherein the scheduling information conveys information relating to at least one time frequency block used by the broadcast or multicast services, wherein the periodically sending sends the scheduling information for each of a plurality of scheduling periods, with each scheduling period including a plurality of sub-frames, wherein the at least one time frequency block related to the scheduling information for a given scheduling period indicates which of the plurality of sub-frames are used by the broadcast or multicast services for the given scheduling period, wherein a first of the broadcast and multicast services is allocated a first time frequency block with a first set of the plurality of sub-frames on a first frequency block within the given scheduling period, and wherein (i) a second of the broadcast and multicast services and/or (ii) one or more of the unicast services are allocated a second time frequency block with a second set of the plurality of sub-frames on a second frequency block that is different in size than the first frequency block within the given scheduling period.