Patent ID: 8798528

Claim:
A relay method in a wireless communication system including a base station, a mobile station, a first relay station, and a second relay station, the method comprising: (a) said second relay station acquiring a downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said first relay station and between said first relay station and said mobile station; said second relay station determining to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station in response to determining at least one of: a downlink transmission rate configuration of said mobile station is currently lower than a first threshold transmission rate value specified by said downlink wireless resource allocation information between said first relay station and said mobile station; and a number of downlink automatic retransmission requests between said first relay station and said mobile station exceeds a first retransmission threshold value; and in response to determining to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station, said second relay station using said acquired downlink wireless resource allocation information to (i) receive relay data sent from said base station to said first relay station, and (ii) forward said relay data to said mobile station; and (b) said second relay station acquiring an uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station and between said relay station and said base station; said second relay station determining to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station in response to determining at least one of: an uplink transmission rate configuration of said mobile station is currently lower than a second threshold transmission rate value specified by said uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station; and a number of uplink automatic retransmission requests between said mobile station and said first relay station exceeds a second retransmission threshold value; and in response to determining to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station, said second relay station using said acquired uplink wireless resource allocation information to (i) receive relay data sent from said mobile station to said first relay station, and (ii) forward said relay data to said base station.