Patent ID: 8483118

Claim:
A method for transmitting a signal at a relay station using a Time Division Duplex (TDD) frame structure comprising a plurality of TDD frames, in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: communicating, at the relay station, with at least one child station and a parent station during a downlink interval and an uplink interval, wherein the downlink interval comprises a downlink access zone located at a beginning of the downlink interval for transmitting a first signal to the at least one child station, a downlink common zone located at an end of the downlink interval for receiving a second signal from the parent station and a first gap zone located between the downlink access zone and the downlink common zone such that the downlink access zone is immediately followed by the first gap and the first gap is immediately followed by the downlink common zone, wherein the uplink interval comprises a uplink access zone located at a beginning of the uplink interval for receiving a third signal from the at least one child station, an uplink common zone located at an end of the uplink interval for transmitting a fourth signal to the parent station and a second gap within the uplink interval is located between the uplink access zone and the uplink common zone such that the uplink access zone is immediately followed by the second gap and the second gap is immediately followed by the uplink common zone, wherein the parent station comprises a base station and the at least one child station comprises a mobile station, wherein the relay station transmits the first signal to the mobile station via the downlink access zone in the downlink interval and receives the second signal from the base station via the downlink common zone in the downlink interval, and wherein the relay station receives the third signal from the mobile station via the uplink access zone in the uplink interval and transmits the fourth signal to the base station via the uplink common zone in the uplink interval.