Patent ID: 8483734

Claim:
A method for communication between radio stations in a radio communication system using a frequency band divided into subcarriers, comprising: transmitting messages between a first radio station and a second radio station by radio in a plurality of hops respectively between adjacent radio stations of adjacent hierarchical levels using one of a plurality of subsets of the subcarriers for each hop and varying a composition of at least one of the subsets used over time, the first radio station being associated with a highest hierarchical level and the radio stations of each lower hierarchical level able to communicate directly with another radio station of a next higher hierarchical level but not with any of the radio stations in any hierarchical level higher than the next higher hierarchical level; allocating by the first radio station to second radio stations of a second hierarchical level a first subset of the subcarriers allocated thereto for communication with third radio stations of a third hierarchical level; allocating at least one of a second set of subcarriers allocated thereto and/or a third set of subcarriers not allocated thereto, to the lower radio stations of a next lower hierarchical level for communication with next lower radio stations of a still lower hierarchical level adjacent to the next lower hierarchical level.