Patent ID: 8774019

Claim:
A method comprising: in a network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the plurality of network nodes comprising at least one base station (BS), at least one relay station (RS) and at least one mobile station (MS), at least one of the plurality of network nodes allocating an OFDM transmission resource having a frequency dimension consisting of a set of OFDM sub-carriers and a time dimension consisting of OFDM symbols using zones, each zone comprising a set of consecutive OFDM symbols by: for a base station (BS), allocating a DL_MS zone for transmitting to mobile stations (MSs), and allocating a DL_RS zone for transmitting to relay stations (RSs); for each relay station, allocating a DL_MS zone for transmitting to mobile stations, and allocating a DL_RS zone for transmitting to other relay stations if present; for the base station, allocating a UL_MS zone for receiving from mobile stations, and allocating a UL_RS zone for receiving from relay stations; for each relay station, allocating a UL_MS zone for receiving from mobile stations, and allocating a UL_RS zone for receiving from other relay stations if present.