Patent ID: 8462673

Claim:
A subscriber unit in a point-to-multipoint wireless communication system, where a base station allocates uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) resources to a plurality of subscriber units on demand, the subscriber unit comprising: an antenna system for transmitting to the base station UL data and receiving from the base station a DL sub-frame including a) control information including a preamble for synchronizing the subscriber unit with the base station, information on an UL scheduled event and a DL scheduled event pertaining to the subscriber unit, identification of a UL physical (PHY) mode associated with the UL scheduled event, and a DL PHY mode associated with the DL scheduled event, and b) a data block with DL data the subscriber unit, the DL data being encoded according to the DL PHY mode provided for the subscriber unit; a receiver configured to decode the control information to identify the DL PHY mode and the UL PHY mode and the information on the DL and UL scheduled events, the receiver being further configured to decode the DL data from the data block based on the DL PHY mode and the information on the DL scheduled event; and a transmitter configured to encode the UL data using the UL PHY mode and to map the UL data into an uplink sub-frame based on the information on the UL scheduled event, wherein the control information is encoded using a DL PHY mode which includes a most robust PHY mode compatible with the subscriber units scheduled to receive data in the DL sub-frame.