Patent ID: RE42068

Claim:
A method of reducing co-channel interference in a frame-based broadband wireless communication system, wherein the communication system comprises a plurality of base stations and a plurality of terminal stations, wherein each terminal station is associated with at least one base station, and wherein each base station has an associated and corresponding cell, wherein each cell includes a plurality of associated and corresponding sectors, and wherein the plurality of base stations use frame-synchronized communication, and wherein the communication system comprises an uplink and a downlink, and wherein the uplink comprises an uplink signal divided into a plurality of time frames, and wherein each time frame has an associated and corresponding frame number, the method comprising the steps of: a) determining a set of terminal stations that may potentially interfere with a selected base station; b) determining a geographically diagonal subset of the set of terminal stations, wherein the diagonal subset communicates with a first set of associated and corresponding base stations that are approximately diagonal to the selected base station; c) determining a geographically non-diagonal subset of the set of terminal stations, wherein the non-diagonal subset communicates with a second set of associated and corresponding base stations that are not approximately diagonal to the selected base station; d) allocating a first set of time frames for the first set of base stations; e) allocating a second set of time frames for the second set of base stations; f) transmitting uplink information from terminal stations associated with the first set of base stations during the first set of time frames; and g) transmitting up link information from terminal stations associated with the second set of base stations during the second set of time frames.