Methods and apparatus for signaling user allocations in multi-user wireless communication networks

With limited communication resources, it is desirable to reduce the number of bits required to convey this physical layer control information, especially as multiple types of traffic are concurrently sent from an access point to multiple terminals. In one aspect, there is provided a method of wireless communication comprising: generating, at an access point, a message for transmission over at least one channel, the message comprising: a first signal field indicative of a length of a first message after the first signal field; and a second signal field indicative of at least one channel assignment, the second signal field having a variable length, wherein the second signal field comprises one or more of a number of stations served and a list of station identifiers, and wherein the at least one channel assignment comprises a bitmap indicating a channel assignment for each station identifier in the list of station identifiers; and transmitting the message to one or more wireless devices.