Patent ID: 8724718

Claim:
A method comprising: a) defining a resource block by a wireless communication device in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communications system, wherein the resource block is a two-dimensional block having a first number of frequency tones along frequency domain and a second number of time slots along time domain; b) determining a specified number of pilot tones to be allocated within the resource block by the device based on a set of communications system requirements, wherein the resource block is partitioned into a number of sub-blocks based on the resource block size and the specified number; and c) positioning the specified number of a plurality of pilot tones by the device in each sub-block such that average distance between the allocated pilot tones and data tones is minimized in each sub-block and that pilot-to-pilot spacing in the resource block is substantially maximized by allocating the pilot tones in different time slots or in different frequency tones, wherein the specified number is equal to m, wherein the resource block is partitioned into n equal sub-blocks, wherein m is a multiple of n, and wherein the positioning in c) involves allocating m/n pilots in each of the partitioned sub-blocks such that average pilot-to-data distance is minimized, wherein m and n are positive integers.