Patent ID: 8054783

Claim:
A method of communicating over a low-rate channel which is multiplexed with a plurality of low-rate channels in subchannels of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frames, the method comprising the acts of: receiving, by a mobile station, an OFDMA downlink subframe, the subframe including a channel assignment for access to an uplink subframe; determining which channel within a subchannel is assigned to the mobile station; and transmitting low-rate information in the assigned channel within the subchannel, wherein the channel within the subchannel comprises a portion of frequencies assigned to the subchannel, and, wherein the portion of the subchannel frequencies are selected based on the acts of ordering a set of tones assigned to the subchannel from lowest to highest frequency; and assigning every other Nth tone of the ordered tones assigned to the subchannel to the mobile station.