Abstract: An apparatus and method for assigning sub-carriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) system are disclosed. In the apparatus and method, data is transmitted through at least one transmit antenna. At least two sub-carriers in a predetermined frequency band are assigned to a user equipment (UE), for data transmission. A Node B groups sub-carriers available to the OFDM system into sub-carrier groups, each having at least two sub-carriers, transmits data to the UE on sub-carriers in the sub-carrier groups, selects at least one sub-carrier group for the UE based on channel condition information about each of the sub-carrier groups received from the UE, and assigns the selected sub-carrier group to the UE.