Wireless communications system and related methods for allocating data transmission

• US 20040203822A1
• Filed: 06/03/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LGS Innovations LLC (CACI International Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Vitebsky, Stanley
• Granted Patent: US 7,072,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/452.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A communications system includes a base station and a plurality of remote stations wirelessly communicating with the base station and transmitting a requested service rate to the base station. The base station allocates a next transmission of data to the remote stations based on a scheduling operation. The scheduling operation includes determining an average service rate for each remote station and determining a priority value for each remote station based on the requested service rate and average service rate. In allocating the next transmission of data, at least one of the average service rate and the priority value is modified to thereby control data throughput of the communications system.

Claims

1. A base station for communicating with remote stations and comprising:

a controller allocating a next transmission of data among the remote stations based on a scheduling operation by

determining an average service rate for each remote station,

determining a priority value for each remote station based upon a requested service rate and the average service rate, and

modifying at least one of the average service rate and the priority value for at least one remote station to thereby control data throughput of the communications system.

2. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises modifying based on the requested service rate of the at least one remote station.

3. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises lowering the priority value if the requested service rate is higher than others and raising the priority value if the requested service rate is lower than others.

4. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises multiplying the priority value by a factor that varies inversely to the requested service rate so as to dampen the effect of a high requested service rate and enhance the effect of a low requested service rate.

5. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises modifying based on the average service rate of the at least one remote station.

6. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises lowering the priority value if the average service rate is higher than others and raising the priority value if the average service rate is lower than others.

7. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying comprises multiplying the priority value by a factor that varies inversely with the average service rate so as to lower the priority value if the average service rate is higher than others and to raise the priority value if the average service rate is lower than others.

8. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying further comprises modifying based upon at least one quality-of-service (QoS) parameter.

9. A base station according to claim 1 wherein modifying is performed for at least one remote station having an average service rate below a threshold.

10. A base station according to claim 9 wherein the threshold is based on all remote station average service rates.

11. A base station according to claim 1 wherein the base station allocates the next transmission of data to a remote station having a highest priority value after modifying.

12. A base station according to claim 1 wherein the base station further comprises at least one transceiver for receiving for each remote station the requested service rate.

13. A base station for communicating with remote stations and comprising:

a controller allocating a next transmission of data among the remote stations based on a scheduling operation by

determining a modified average service rate for each remote station, the modified average service rate being based upon an average service rate of the remote station,

determining a priority value for at least one remote station based upon the modified average service rate and a requested service rate of the at least one remote station,

determining which remote station has a highest priority value, and

allocating the next transmission of data based on the highest priority value.

14. A base station according to claim 13 wherein the modified average service rate lowers the priority value if the average service rate is higher than others and raises the priority value if the average service rate is lower than others.

15. A base station according to claim 13 wherein the priority value is based on a ratio of the requested service rate and the modified average service rate, and wherein the modified average service rate is higher than the average service rate when the average service rate is higher than others and is lower than the average service rate when the average service rate is lower than others.

16. A base station for communicating with remote stations and comprising:

a controller allocating a next transmission of data among the remote stations based on a scheduling operation by

determining an average service rate for each remote station, and

determining whether a remote station is eligible for allocation of the next transmission of data based on a comparison of the average service rate of the remote station with a predetermined threshold value.

17. A base station according to claim 16 wherein the threshold is based on an average of all remote station average service rates.

18. A base station according to claim 16 further comprising determining a priority value for a remote station determined to be eligible for allocation of the next transmission of data.

19. A method of allocating a next transmission of data associated with a communications system comprising a base station and a plurality of remote stations wirelessly communicating with the base station and transmitting thereto a requested service rate, the method comprising:

determining an average service rate for each remote station;

determining a priority value for each remote station based upon the requested service rate and the average service rate; and

modifying at least one of the average service rate and the priority value for at least one of the remote stations.

20. A method according to claim 19 wherein modifying comprises lowering the priority value if the requested service rate is higher than others and raising the priority value if the requested service rate is lower than others.

21. A method according to claim 19 wherein modifying comprises lowering the priority value if the average service rate is higher than others and raising the priority value if the average service rate is lower than others.

22. A method according to claim 19 wherein modifying comprises further modifying based upon at least one quality-of-service (QoS) parameter.

23. A method according to claim 19 wherein modifying is performed for at least one remote station having an average service rate below a threshold.