Method and system for allocating media access control layer resources in a wireless communication environment

A method of portioning wireless transmission resources, the method comprising:

• at a base station:
• establishing an uplink resource pool in a first time interval, the uplink resource pool being divided into a plurality of physical layer allocation units usable for wirelessly transmitting control and traffic data from mobile stations;
• wherein the physical layer of the uplink is based on a broadband orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing (OFDM) technology;
• partitioning the allocation units of the uplink resource pool, wherein the resource partitioning is a temporary arrangement transmitted in at least one system information message, wherein the resource partitioning configuration includes at least partitions of:
• one or more feedback partitions configurable to receive at least channel quality feedback, feedback related to multiple input multiple output (MIMO) operation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) feedback at the base station from one or more mobile stations;
• and
• a first signaling partition configurable to receive signaling at the base station from one or more mobile stations, where the signaling is used for at least performing a uplink timing adjustment for mobile station transmissions;
• adding a mobile station to a first multicast group based on a common parameter, wherein the first multicast group is defined by a first multicast group ID, wherein the first multicast group ID is defined by the base station for temporarily grouping mobile stations sharing the common parameter and a particular packet type, service, or mobile station state;
• transmitting an uplink resource assignment specific to the mobile station in a multicast control message, wherein the multicast control message is directed to the first multicast group defined by the first multicast group ID, wherein the multicast control message identifies a plurality of mobile stations of the first multicast group that are each assigned respective resources;
• and
• transmitting a second uplink resource assignment in a second multicast control message, wherein a second multicast control message is directed to a second multicast group is defined by a second multicast group ID, wherein the mobile station is not a member of the second multicast group, wherein the second multicast group ID is used to prevent the mobile station from decoding the second multicast control message.