Patent ID: 8687539

Claim:
A method of transmission between a first station and a second station via one of a plurality of relay stations, said method comprising: (a) transmitting at least one signal to a plurality of candidate relay stations for communicating between a first station and a second station; (b) at each relay station, measuring a received signal resulting from said transmitted signal and transmitting a report of this measurement to one of the first and second stations; (c) upon receipt of the reports, choosing a relay station to be used, based on said measurement; (d) the second station transmitting a signal to the relay station; (e) each relay station measuring the signal received from the second station; and (f) each relay station selecting a time to transmit its report, such that more favorable reports are transmitted more expeditiously than less favorable reports, wherein, for each relay station, the time selected to transmit its report is based not only on its measurement of the first received signal, but also on its measurement of the signal transmitted by the second station.