As the demand for mobile services increases, so do the bandwidths in wireless systems. For example, for each generation of mobile communication systems, the operation bandwidth is significantly broader than that in the previous generation. In a wireless communication system, a channel is divided into multiple subchannels or resource blocks in time, frequency, code, or space. Subchannels are used as a basic link unit for the purpose of multiple access. One or more subchannels are assigned to a mobile user for voice, data, and multi-media services. The system must have the management functionalities to assign subchannels and schedule transmissions. As the operation bandwidth increases, so does the number of subchannels, which in turn leads to exponential increase in radio resource overhead for control signaling required by channel assignment and transmission scheduling and for facilitating system functions such as channel estimation, modulation, and coding. Thus, this is a real need for effective organization or allocation of radio resources in order to reduce the overhead in a future generation of mobile communication systems.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds