Method and apparatus for allocating resources using nested bit mapping

1. A method comprising:

generating, via at least one processor selected from a DSP chip, an ASIC, or a FPGA, a control signal for allocating one or more physical resource blocks to a terminal for communicating over a network;

individually coding the control signal for each of a plurality of terminals;

utilizing a nested bit mapping scheme to specify the allocation in the control signal;

wherein the nested bit mapping scheme provides a primary bit map corresponding to different subsets of physical resource blocks, and a secondary bit map, each bit of the secondary bit map corresponding to a single physical resource block within a subset of physical resource blocks indicated by the primary bit map;

transmitting, via a transceiver, the control signal; and

receiving/transmitting, via the transceiver, data using the allocation specified by the control signal.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the secondary bit map has fewer bits than the primary bit map.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein each bit of the secondary bit map corresponds to one division of the set as indicated by the primary bit map.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the control signal includes a flag to specify whether the allocation is localized or distributed.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the network is compliant with a long term evolution (LTE)-compliant architecture.

6. An apparatus comprising:

an allocation module, including coding logic and resource mapping logic, configured to generate a control signal for allocating one or more physical resource blocks to a terminal for communicating over a network employing OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing) as a downlink (DL) transmission scheme, wherein the control signal is individually coded for each of a plurality of terminals and utilizes a nested bit mapping scheme to specify the allocation in the control signal,

wherein the nested bit mapping scheme provides a primary bit map corresponding to different subsets of physical resource blocks, and a secondary bit map, each bit of the secondary bit map corresponding to a single physical resource block within a subset of physical resource blocks indicated by the primary bit map,

a transceiver module configured to transmit the control signal, and

the transceiver module receiving/transmitting data using the allocation specified by the control signal.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the secondary bit map has fewer bits than the primary bit map.

8. An apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the control signal includes a flag to specify whether the allocation is localized or distributed.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a control signal specifying allocation of one or more physical resource blocks for communication over a network and utilizing a nested bit mapping scheme in the control signal;

a mapping module, including resource mapping logic, configured to determine the allocation according to the nested bit mapping scheme, wherein the control signal is separately coded for each of a plurality of terminals;

wherein the nested bit mapping scheme provides a primary bit map corresponding to different subsets of physical resource blocks, and a secondary bit map, each bit of the secondary bit map corresponding to a single physical resource block within a subset of physical resource blocks indicated by the primary bit map; and

the transceiver configured to transmit/receive data using the allocation specified by the control signal.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the physical resource blocks within the set are adjacent to one another.

11. An apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the secondary bit map is has fewer bits than the primary bit map.

12. An apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein each bit of the secondary bit map corresponds to one division of the set as indicated by the primary bit map.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein for at least one of the plurality of terminals, the secondary bit map of the individually coded control signal indicates a bit value of 1 for the single physical resource block, and the single physical resource block is allocated to the terminal.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the different subsets of the physical resource blocks are non-overlapping subsets of physical resource blocks.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary bit map is 2 bits.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein bits of the secondary bit map, from a most significant bit to a least significant bit, correspond to a single physical resource block in an increasing frequency order.

17. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein for at least one of the plurality of terminals, the secondary bit map of the individually coded control signal indicates a bit value of 1 for the single physical resource block, and the single physical resource block is allocated to the terminal.

18. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein for at least one of the plurality of terminals, the secondary bit map of the individually coded control signal indicates a bit value of 1 for the single physical resource block, and the single physical resource block is allocated to the terminal.