Patent ID: 8792367

Claim:
For use in a WiMAX wireless mobile multi-hop relay network, a processor-implemented method for facilitating cooperative communication of data between a target subscriber node and a base station node via a plurality of relay nodes, the processor-implemented method comprising: a) synchronizing the target subscriber node, a plurality of other subscriber nodes, and the plurality of relay nodes with the base station node in the wireless mobile multi-hop relay network; b) determining, by the base station node, cooperative transmission functionality of each of the plurality of other subscriber nodes, wherein when a subscriber node supports cooperative transmission functionality, it is also considered a relay node; c) determining node-to-node channel conditions, between each of the target subscriber node, the plurality of relay nodes including all other subscriber nodes which support cooperative transmission functionality, and the base station node; d) identifying, by the base station node, a set of potential relay nodes from the plurality of relay nodes to assist in sending data between the target subscriber node and the base station using the determined node-to-node channel conditions; and e) transmitting, by the base station node, to each of the identified set of potential relay nodes a message informing each of the identified set of potential relay nodes that they are to assist in relaying data between the target subscriber node and the base station node, wherein the act of determining cooperative transmission functionality of each of the plurality of other subscriber nodes includes receiving, by the base station node, a helper capability request message from each of the plurality of other subscriber nodes, and sending, from the base station node, a helper capability response message to each of the plurality of other subscriber nodes from which a helper capability request message was received, and wherein the helper capability request message received from each of the plurality of other subscriber nodes includes a cooperative capability field that indicates whether a subscriber node is able to serve as a helper relay.