Method and apparatus for radio resource allocation in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system

1. A method for radio resource allocation in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing communication system, wherein a frequency bandwidth is divided into a plurality of Physical Resource Units (PRUs), the method comprising:

dividing PRUs into two groups, wherein a first group of the two groups is available for frequency selective allocations and a second group of the two groups is available for frequency diverse allocations;

subdividing each of the two groups into multiple sets of PRUs;

mapping the sets of PRUs from the first group of PRUs to consecutive PRUs allocated for contiguous segment allocation to produce contiguous segment PRUs (CS-PRUs);

mapping the sets of PRUs from the second group of PRUs to consecutive PRUs allocated for distributed segment allocation to produce distributed segment PRUs (DS-PRUs);

permuting the DS-PRUs to produce permuted DS-PRUs; and

allocating the CS-PRUs and the permuted DS-PRUs to at least one frequency partition and wherein the CS-PRU and the permuted DS-PRU are concatenated.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising allocating the CS-PRUs and the permuted DS-PRUs to one or more fractional frequency reuse (FFR) partitions to produce one or more FFR partitions, each comprising one or more PRUs.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising notifying mobile stations of the one or more FFR partitions via a downlink broadcast channel.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein notifying mobile stations of the one or more FFR partitions comprises conveying a downlink broadcast channel message comprising an FFR configuration field.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the FFR configuration field comprises a first data field that defines a number of FFR partitions and a second data field that defines the size of all FFR partitions.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising permuting distributed subcarriers within an FFR partition.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising permuting the one or more FFR partitions on a coverage area specific basis.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising allocating a primary FFR partition of the one or more FFR partitions for use in each of a plurality of adjacent coverage areas.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising allocating a plurality of secondary FFR partitions of the one or more FFR partitions for use in a single coverage area of the plurality of adjacent coverage areas.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the permuted DS-PRUs have 4 th order transmit diversity.

11. A Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module for configuring a physical layer in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing communication system, wherein a frequency bandwidth is divided into a plurality of Physical Resource Units (PRUs), the Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module comprising:

a processor that is configured to:

divide PRUs into two groups, wherein a first group of the two groups is available for frequency selective allocations and a second group of the two groups is available for frequency diverse allocations;

subdivide each of the two groups into multiple sets of PRUs;

map the sets of PRUs from the first group of PRUs to consecutive PRUs allocated for contiguous segment allocation to produce contiguous segment PRUs (CS-PRUs);

map the sets of PRUs from the second group of PRUs to consecutive PRUs allocated for distributed segment allocation to produce distributed segment PRUs (DS-PRUs); and

permute the DS-PRUs to produce permuted DS-PRUs;

allocate the CS-PRUs and the permuted DS-PRUs to a frequency partition wherein the CS-PRUs and the permuted DS-PRUs are concatenated; and

a network interface for informing other network elements of the CS-PRUs and permuted DS-PRUs.

12. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 11 , wherein the permuted DS-PRUs have 4 th order transmit diversity.

13. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to allocate the CS-PRUs and the permuted DS-PRUs to one or more fractional frequency reuse (FFR) partitions to produce one or more FFR partitions, each comprising one or more PRUs.

14. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to permute the one or more FFR partitions on a coverage area specific basis.

15. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to allocate a primary FFR partition of the one or more FFR partitions for use in each of a plurality of adjacent coverage areas.

16. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to allocate a plurality of secondary FFR partitions of the one or more FFR partitions for use in a single coverage area of the plurality of adjacent coverage areas.

17. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to notify mobile stations of the one or more FFR partitions via a downlink broadcast channel.

18. The Frequency Partitioning Configuration Module of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to convey a Contiguous Segment Count that includes a value that indicates how many segments are allocated to Contiguous Segments.