Method of allocating communication resources in an MF-TDMA telecommunication system

• US 20020176398A1
• Filed: 05/10/2002
• Published: 11/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Nidda, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,385,943 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/347
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2615 using hybrid frequency-time division multiple access [FDMA-TDMA]

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of allocating communication resources to terminals in an MF-TDMA telecommunication system in which digital data is transmitted in selected time intervals on each of a plurality of carriers. The resources for each terminal are allocated to frames grouped into superframes. The pattern of resources (time intervals and carriers) allocated to the terminal for the transmission of real-time data in each frame of a given rank in a superframe remains the same throughout the various superframes of the call relating to the real time data. Accordingly, the transmission of real time data is virtually free of jitter.

Claims

1. A method of allocating communication resources to terminals in an MF-TDMA telecommunication system in which digital data is transmitted in selected time slots on each carrier of a plurality of carriers, wherein said resources for each terminal are allocated by frames which are grouped into superframes and the pattern of resources, comprising time slots and carriers, allocated to a terminal for transmission of real-time data in each frame with a given number in a superframe remains the same during the superframes of the call to which the real time data relates and the pattern of resources allocated to the real time data call is the same for all the frames of each superframe.

2. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein non-real-time data calls are allocated available resources varying from one superframe to another.

5. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein, to facilitate the search for available resources to be allocated, for each type of carrier, i.e. for the carriers having the same time slot duration, there is provided a set of vectors or words each consisting of a series of binary digits, one value of which represents an available resource and the other value of which represents unavailability of resources, said vectors including:

a first vector having a number of components equal to the number of time slots of the frame and the value of each component of which represents the availability of a frequency for the time slot concerned,

a frequency vector for each time slot having a number of components equal to the number of frequencies, the value of each component representing the availability of that frequency, and

a time slot vector for each frequency having a number of components equal to the number of time slots, the value of each component representing the availability of that time slot at that frequency.

6. The method claimed in claim 5 wherein, to allocate a resource, the first vector is searched first and then, if at least one component indicates the availability of a frequency, the frequency vector is searched for the available frequency for the corresponding time slot.

7. The method claimed in claim 5 wherein, to allocate a resource to a terminal for which a carrier frequency of the type concerned is available, the time slot vector that corresponds to said available frequency is searched to determine an available time slot.

8. The method claimed in claim 5 wherein a vector comprising as many components as there are time slots and in which each component represents the availability of said time slot for sending and a vector comprising as many components as there are time slots and in which each component represents the availability of said time slot for receiving are provided for each carrier type.

9. The method claimed in claim 5 wherein, to enable fast searching, each vector or word is divided into a set of secondary words and a master word is formed having a number of binary digits equal to the number of secondary words, the value of each binary digit of the master word representing the presence, in the corresponding secondary word, of at least one binary digit representing the availability of a resource, the search being effected first in the master word and then in a secondary word corresponding to an available resource.

10. The method claimed in claim 9 wherein all the secondary words include the same number of binary digits and the master word includes a number of binary digits equal to the number of binary digits of each secondary word.

3. A method of allocating communication resources to terminals in an MF-TDMA telecommunication system in which digital data is transmitted in selected time slots on each carrier of a plurality of carriers, wherein said resources for each terminal are allocated by frames which are grouped into superframes and the pattern of resources, comprising time slots and carriers, allocated to a terminal for transmission of real-time data in each frame with a given number in a superframe remains the same during the superframes of the call to which the real time data relates, and, when a time slot is allocated to a terminal for a type of transmission (sending or receiving), the simultaneous time slots of the other carriers which are equal to, which overlap, or which are contained within the allocated time slot are rendered unavailable for said terminal and for the same type of transmission, so that a terminal cannot send or receive on two different carriers simultaneously in the same time slot.

4. The method claimed in claim 3 for allocating communication resources to terminals in a transparent satellite MF-TDMA telecommunication system wherein, to distribute said resources uniformly in time slots, the allocation of said resources to time slots in each frame is effected in each new superframe starting from the last time slot that was set during the preceding superframe.