According to one embodiment, a method of allocating a radio resource for a relay station includes: transmitting configuration information through a higher layer signal, the configuration information including information regarding an OFDM symbol at which a relay zone begins; allocating the relay zone to the relay station in a subframe based on the configuration information; and transmitting a relay control channel to the relay station in the relay zone. The subframe includes OFDM symbols in a time domain and subcarriers in a frequency domain. The relay zone includes a subset of the OFDM symbols in the time domain and a portion of the subcarriers in the frequency domain. The configuration information indicates an OFDM symbol from among a second OFDM symbol, a third OFDM symbol and a fourth OFDM symbol. The relay control channel is transmitted from the fourth OFDM symbol of the subframe.