Patent ID: 8089928

Claim:
A method for allocating resources in a wireless network, comprising: establishing one or more relay links between at least one base station and one or more relay stations; establishing one or more single-hop access links between one or more endpoints and the base station; establishing one or more multi-hop access links between one or more endpoints and the relay stations; iteratively repeating the following steps at the base station until a single-hop data rate is approximately equal to a multi-hop data rate: allocating a first number of slots to the multi-hop access links; dividing the first number of slots among the multi-hop access links ensuring each multi-hop access link comprises an approximately equal multi-hop data rate; allocating a second number of slots to the relay links ensuring that each relay link comprises a relay link data rate that is approximately equal to a collective multi-hop data rate for the respective multi-hop access links established therebetween; allocating a third number of slots to the single-hop access links; dividing the third number of slots among the single-hop access links ensuring each single-hop access link comprises an approximately equal single-hop data rate; and comparing the single-hop data rate to the multi-hop data rate; and upon the single-hop data rate being approximately equal to the multi-hop data rate, provisioning the first number of slots to each of the multi-hop access links, the second number of slots to each of the relay links, and the third number of slots to each of the single-hop access links.