Patent ID: 7873011

Claim:
A method comprising: dividing a communication resource in use in a communication system into a plurality of communication resource units, the communication resource units made available by an apparatus for use by communication devices to perform information transmission and retransmission; the apparatus ordering the communication resource units in accordance with a predetermined ordering criterion; the apparatus allocating the communication resource units in consecutive first and second time periods in such a manner so that a first group of communication resource units are selected from the communication resource starting from a first end of the communication resource and assigned to a first group of communication devices for use in the first time period and a second group of communication resource units are selected from the communication resource starting from a second end of the communication resource and assigned to a second group of communication devices for use in the second time period; the apparatus using the first group of communication resource units in the first time period and the second group of communication resource units in the second time period to perform information transmission operations; and the apparatus allocating in the second time period at least a portion of the first group of communication resource units to the first group of communication devices to perform information retransmission operations.