A base station and subscriber station are capable of communicating with each other in a wireless communication network. The base station allocates resources to the subscriber station through resource allocation messages included in a resource allocation region of a downlink communication. The resource allocation region is partitioned into a plurality of sub-regions. Conventions regarding the arrangement of the resource allocation messages are disclosed which enable the subscriber station to decode the resource allocation messages contained in a sub-region and cease decoding operations upon reaching the end of the sub-region. Accordingly, the subscriber station does not decode resource allocation messages contained in subsequent sub-regions.