Apparatus and method for communicating signaling information

A method of transmitting signalling information in a cellular communication system supporting a plurality of shared uplink transmission resources being divided into sets of mutually exclusive uplink transmission resources and a plurality of shared downlink transmission resources divided into sets of mutually exclusive downlink transmission resources, wherein the shared uplink transmission resources are defined in terms of codes and timeslots;

• the method comprising the steps of:
• granting uplink resources of said plurality of shared uplink transmission resources to a wireless subscriber communication unit via a grant message;
• receiving an uplink transmission from the wireless subscriber communication unit which has been previously scheduled;
• deriving an uplink resource identifier from the uplink transmission or from the grant message;
• assigning a downlink transmission resource of said plurality of shared downlink transmission resources used to carry downlink signalling information associated with the derived uplink resource identifier;
• and
• transmitting a downlink transmission using the downlink transmission resource to the wireless subscriber communication unit, wherein the downlink transmission resource associates an acknowledgment signal with the uplink transmission using the uplink resource identifier such that a downlink transmission transmitted to the wireless subscriber communication unit using the downlink transmission resource includes the acknowledgment signal, the acknowledgment signal being carried by an Enhanced Uplink Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (E-HICH) for a set of users, and a downlink code sequence associated with the derived uplink resource identifier being dynamically assigned and re-assigned in a single transmit time interval (TTI), wherein the acknowledgment signal is code-division-multiplexed (CDM).

A cellular communication system supporting a plurality of shared uplink transmission resources being divided into sets of mutually exclusive uplink transmission resources and a plurality of shared downlink transmission resources divided into sets of mutually exclusive downlink transmission resources, wherein the shared uplink transmission resources are defined in terms of codes and timeslots;

• including:
• a base station, the base station comprising:
• an uplink scheduler operable to grant an uplink transmission resource of said plurality of shared uplink transmission resources to a wireless subscriber communication unit via a grant message;
• a transceiver unit operable to receive an uplink transmission from the wireless subscriber communication unit which has been previously scheduled;
• a controller operable to derive an uplink resource identifier associated with the uplink transmission or the grant message and to assign a downlink transmission resource of said plurality of shared downlink transmission resources associated with the derived uplink resource identifier, and wherein the controller is further operable to associate an acknowledgment signal with the uplink transmission using the uplink resource identifier such that a downlink transmission transmitted using the transceiver to the wireless subscriber communication unit using the downlink transmission resource includes the acknowledgment signal, the acknowledgment signal being carried by an Enhanced Uplink Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (E-HICH) for a set of users, and a downlink code sequence associated with the derived uplink resource identifier being dynamically assigned and re-assigned in a single transmit time interval (TTI), wherein the acknowledgment signal is code-division-multiplexed (CDM).