Patent ID: 8229351

Claim:
A method of selecting positions for stations in a cellular radio communications system, the system comprising a plurality of base stations, each being associated with at least two fixed relay stations; and each of said plurality base stations with its said at least two fixed relay stations, comprising: providing radio coverage for a plurality of mobile stations in a respective relay-enhanced cell of a wide area cellular radio communications system via wireless data transmissions between said mobile stations and each of said plurality base stations either as single-hop data transmissions between said mobile stations and their associated base stations or as multi-hop data transmissions that comprise data transmission between said mobile stations and associated relay stations and data transmission between said relay stations and each of said plurality base stations associated with each of said relay stations, the method comprising the steps of: determining locations of said relay stations, said mobile stations and said base stations with a view to equalizing capacity of transmission between said relay stations, said mobile stations and said base stations based on said determined locations; determining whether the hop between said bas stations and said mobile station is a single hop or a multi-hop; evaluating positions of said plurality of base stations and of said plurality relay stations with respect to their impact on the available end-to-end transmission capacity per small area element of the cellular wide area radio communications system with an average number of multi-hop data transmissions in said radio communications system being equal to, or larger than, an average number of single-hop data transmissions; and selecting the positions of said relay stations and each of said plurality base stations which are associated with in each relay-enhanced cell in such a way that an equalization of the available end-to-end transmission capacity per small area element of the cellular radio communications system is achieved.