Patent ID: 7873338

Claim:
A method for determining a link path from a subscriber station to a base station, the method comprising the steps of: requesting by the base station, channel quality information from a subscriber and a relay; receiving by the base station, an over-the-air transmission that contains channel quality information; determining by the base station, a link quality (C SR ) from the subscriber station to a relay station; determining by the base station, a link quality (C RB ) from the relay station to the base station; determining by the base station, a link quality (C SB ) from the subscriber station to the base station; determining by the base station, a quality of a first link path from the subscriber station to the base station that passes through the relay station based on the link qualities (C SR , C RB ); determining by the base station, a quality of a second link path from the subscriber station to the base station that does not pass through the relay station based on the link quality (C SB ); determining by the base station, whether to utilize the first link path or the second link path from the subscriber station to the base station based on at least the quality of the first and second link paths.