Patent ID: 8301155

Claim:
A base station configured for resource allocation in orthogonal-frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) subframes, wherein resource comprising virtual resource blocks (VRBs) and physical resource blocks (PRBs), the base station comprising: processing circuitry to allocate localized resources to user stations based on receipt of channel quality information received from the user stations and to allocate distributed resource to user stations based on non-receipt of channel quality information; and physical layer circuitry configured to transmit control information on a physical channel to indicate the resources that are allocated to each scheduled user station, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: allocate VRBs of a localized type to user stations based on receipt of a channel quality indicator (CQI) received from the user stations; and allocate VRBs of a distributed type to user stations based on non-receipt of a CQI, and wherein the physical layer circuitry is configured to transmit downlink control information (DCI) carried on a physical-downlink control channel (PDCCH) using a bitmap to indicate the VRBs that are allocated to each scheduled user station; and wherein a PRB to which VRB being mapped comprises a number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain and a number of consecutive OFDM subcarriers in the frequency domain of an OFDMA downlink subframe; the base station is further configured to provide a flag bit carried on the PDCCH to indicate to a scheduled user station whether the VRB allocation is of the localized type or the distributed type; wherein a size of a resource block group allocated to a user station corresponds to a CQI subband size; wherein for downlink transmissions using a normal length cyclic prefix, the PRB comprises seven consecutive OFDM symbol in the time domain and twelve consecutive OFDM subcarriers in the frequency domain, and wherein for downlink transmissions using an extended cyclic prefix, the PRB comprises six consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain and twelve consecutive OFDM subcarriers in the frequency domain or three consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain and twenty-four consecutive OFDM subcarriers in the frequency domain depending on a subcarrier frequency delta (Af).