Abstract: A method for use in a cellular, FFT based multi-carrier communications system comprising N sub-carriers, for allocating a set P of sub-carriers to be reserved for potential use as carriers of specific information, comprises the following steps: selecting a number M indicating the number of sub-carriers to be allocated to a set P of sub-carriers, such that L=N/M is an integer allocating the at least two subcarriers of the set P={(n0+m*L) mod N : 0?m<M} for the specific information, n0 being the offset of the lowest numbered subcarrier in P, the elements of P being indices, each referring to the number of a sub-carrier to be allocated. An apparatus for carrying out the method is also disclosed. According to the invention, the sub-channels are maximally spread in frequency, which gives maximum diversity and also enables the use of low-complexity terminals.

Abstract: Radio resources are allocated to communication between a mobile station and a base station. The available set of radio resources may comprise radio resources primarily assigned to a neighboring cell if the 5 mobile station experience an instantaneous low level of co-channel interference from such neighboring cells. The existence of interference is preferably deduced from signal quality measurements of pilot signals. The allocation may concern uplink and/or downlink communication. Devices for performing the measurements are located in the mobile station, while devices for performing the evaluation, selection and actual allocation can be placed in different parts of the communications system—in the mobile station, in a base station or in a core network node, or as a distributed means.

Abstract: A set of different pilot structures are designed for use in different environments and/or different user behaviours that are expected to occur in a cell. The radio conditions for a user are estimated. Each user is then assigned an area (108A-E) in resource space for its communication, which has a suitable pilot configuration. In one embodiment, the entire resource space is provided with different pilot structures in different parts (110A-D) In advance and allocation of resources to the users are then performed in order to match estimated radio conditions to the provided pilot structure. In another embodiment, allocation is performed first, and then the actual pilot structure is adapted within the allocated resource space area to suit the environmental conditions.