Patent ID: 7957257

Claim:
A transmission method for use in a multi-hop wireless communication system, the system comprising a source apparatus, a destination apparatus and one or more intermediate apparatuses, said source apparatus being operable to transmit information in a communication direction along a series of links forming a communication path extending from the source apparatus to the destination apparatus via the one or more intermediate apparatuses, and the one or more intermediate apparatuses being operable to receive information from a previous apparatus along the path and to transmit the received information to a subsequent apparatus along the path, the system using a time-frequency format for transmission during a transmission period, with a plurality of transmission windows being provided within the transmission period, each window occupying a different part, said windows being assignable for transmission in the transmission period, the method comprising: transmitting a first transmission signal from a first apparatus, corresponding to one of said one or more intermediate apparatuses, in a first transmission window of a particular transmission period, the first transmission signal including specific intermediate apparatus information of the transmitting intermediate apparatus; and transmitting all of the transmission signals for transmission from said source apparatus and destination apparatus in the particular transmission period, in other transmission windows of the particular transmission period but not in said first transmission window.