Patent ID: 7965618

Claim:
A wireless transmission method for use in a multi-hop wireless communication system, the system comprising at least three communication apparatuses, one said communication apparatus comprising a source apparatus, another said communication apparatus comprising a destination apparatus and the other said communication apparatus comprising an intermediate apparatus, said source apparatus being operable to transmit information in a transmission window in a communication direction along a communication path extending from the source apparatus to the destination apparatus via the intermediate apparatus, the transmission window having a shape defined by a transmission frequency bandwidth profile over a transmission interval, the communication path comprising a series of two or more consecutive links from the source apparatus to the destination apparatus, and the intermediate apparatus being operable to receive information from a previous communication apparatus in said communication direction and to transmit the received information in such a transmission window to a subsequent apparatus in said communication direction, the method comprising: determining for a particular transmission at least one measure of the expected link characteristics for at least two links of the communication path; and for each of those links, configuring a particular transmission window by setting its shape and a transmission format to be used in that window in dependence upon the measure for that link only; and during that particular transmission, transmitting information along those links using, for each of those links, the particular transmission window for that link.