Patent ID: 7916704

Claim:
A method of communication scheduling in a multihop network, wherein the multihop network comprises a base station and at least one relay station, the method comprising: allocating a downlink relay zone to a relay station; determining whether to enable downlink local scheduling at the relay station on the basis of the relay station's capability; when the determining step leads to a positive result: enabling the down link local scheduling at the relay station; assigning a first one or more connection identifiers to be locally scheduled at the relay station for communication on a first portion of the downlink relay zone; and assigning a second one or more connection identifiers to be centrally scheduled by the base station for communication on a second portion of the downlink relay zone; and when the determining step leads to a negative result: assigning one or more connection identifiers to be centrally scheduled by the base station for communication on the downlink relay zone.