System and method for assigning communications resources in a wireless communications system

A method for operating a base station of a wireless communications system, the method comprising:

• receiving a resource request for radio resources for a mobile station;
• assigning radio resources to the mobile station by assigning at least one node of an annular channel tree to the mobile station, the annular channel tree comprising an outermost ring having a plurality of base nodes corresponding to allocatable radio resources, two or more intermediate rings each having a same number of nodes as the outermost ring, and an innermost ring having a single node, wherein nodes of the annular channel tree are mapped to one another such that the outermost ring, the two or more intermediate rings, and the innermost ring are interconnected in a circularly adjacent manner, wherein at least one of the nodes on an outer-most one of the two or more intermediate rings is non-orthogonal with another one of the nodes on the outer-most intermediate ring such that multiple nodes on the outer-most intermediate ring allocate a common time-frequency resource upon being assigned;
• setting values of individual bits in a bitmap based on the resource request, wherein bits in the bitmap indicate an assignment state for nodes in the channel tree, and wherein a bit in the bitmap corresponds to a single node of the channel tree;
• and
• transmitting the bitmap to the mobile station.

A method for operating a base station of a wireless communications system, the method comprising:

• receiving a resource request for radio resources for a mobile station;
• assigning radio resources based on the resource request, wherein the assigning makes use of a multilevel channel tree comprising a set of mappings between nodes of the multilevel channel tree and radio resources, with each node corresponding to at least one radio resource, the multilevel channel tree specifiable by a first index corresponding to a node in a first portion of the multilevel channel tree and a second index corresponding to a number of nodes a specified number of levels below the node, and
• transmitting an indicator of the assigned radio resources to the mobile station,
• wherein the multilevel channel tree has K levels, a first one of the K levels comprising a single node, an N-th one of the K levels comprising N*M nodes, where M is a degree of the multilevel channel tree, and a K-th one of the K levels comprising nodes representing allocatable radio resources,
• wherein the second index comprises a J-bit long bitmap, and
• wherein the assigning comprises:
• selecting a node from the first level to a K-(LogMJ) level of the multilevel channel tree based on the resource request;
• and
• setting values of individual bits in the bitmap based on the resource request, wherein bits in the bitmap indicate an assignment state for nodes in a level LogMJ levels below a level of the selected node, and wherein a bit in the bitmap corresponds to a single node of the multilevel channel tree at the level LogMJ levels below a level of the selected node.

A base station comprising:

• a processor:
• and
• a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• receive a resource request requesting radio resources for a mobile station;
• assign radio resources to the mobile station based on the resource request using a channel tree comprised of at least a first set of mappings of radio resources and a second set of mappings of radio resources, wherein at least one mapping in the second set of mappings of radio resources is non-orthogonal to another mapping in the second set of mappings of radio resources such that multiple mappings within the second set of mappings allocate a common radio resource upon being assigned;
• set values of individual bits in a bitmap based on the resource request, wherein bits in the bitmap indicate an assignment state for nodes in the channel tree, and wherein a bit in the bitmap corresponds to a single node of the channel tree;
• and
• transmit the bitmap to the mobile station.

A base station comprising:

• a processor:
• and
• a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• receive a resource request for radio resources for a mobile station;
• assign radio resources to the mobile station in accordance with the resource request using an annular channel tree comprising an outermost ring and a first inner ring, wherein the outermost ring comprises a plurality of base nodes corresponding to radio resources, and wherein the first inner ring comprises a first plurality of intermediate nodes each of which being mapped to one or more base nodes of the outermost ring, wherein at least one of the first plurality of intermediate nodes on the first inner ring is non-orthogonal to another one of the first plurality of intermediate nodes on the first inner ring such that multiple nodes within the first plurality of intermediate nodes allocate a common radio resource upon being assigned;
• set values of individual bits in a bitmap based on the resource request, wherein bits in the bitmap indicate an assignment state for nodes in the channel tree, and wherein a bit in the bitmap corresponds to a single node of the channel tree;
• and
• transmit the bitmap to the mobile station.