Aspects are disclosed for multiplexing disparate wireless terminals. Resource blocks are mapped according to a hopping pattern. A first and second pair of physical resource blocks are allocated such that the first pair is associated with a first hopping index pair, whereas the second pair is associated with a second hopping index pair. For this embodiment, the first and second hopping index pairs are inversely symmetrical to each other. A pair of distributed resource blocks is also allocated. An assignment is then scheduled that includes a physical resource allocation and a virtual resource allocation. Aspects for operating a wireless terminal are also disclosed. Here, a communication that includes a resource allocation and a reference signal is received. A minimum resource allocation granularity is ascertained from the communication, and a joint channel estimation is based on the reference signal and is a function of the minimum resource allocation granularity.