METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A SELF-CORRECTING BANDWIDTH REQUEST/GRANT PROTOCOL IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- at least one low level media access control (MAC) element (LL-MAC) in a base station of a communication system in which one or more remote units compete for limited uplink resources, each LL-MAC configured to control communication over a respective physical channel between a remote unit and the base station, the at least one LL-MAC including a first LL-MAC configured to control communication over a first physical channel between a first remote unit and the base station; and
a high level MAC element (HL-MAC) in the base station, the HL-MAC logically coupled to the at least one LL-MAC and configured to control communication over a plurality of physical channels including the first physical channel,wherein the LL-MAC is configured to send a general bandwidth grant of uplink resources over the first physical channel that can be used by the first remote unit to transmit data-bearing traffic to the LL-MAC, and wherein the LL-MAC is configured to receive in response thereto an explicit bandwidth request message.
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Abstract
A self-correcting bandwidth request/grant protocol in a broadband wireless communication system. The protocol uses a combination of incremental and aggregate bandwidth requests. stations primarily transmit incremental bandwidth requests to their associated base stations, followed by periodic transmissions of aggregate bandwidth requests. Risks are reduced that a base station erroneously issues duplicate bandwidth allocations to the same station for the same connection are re. Race conditions that may have occurred using only aggregate bandwidth requests are eliminated. Use of periodic aggregate bandwidth requests that express the current state of respective connection queues provides a “self-correcting.” property.
60 Citations
7 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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at least one low level media access control (MAC) element (LL-MAC) in a base station of a communication system in which one or more remote units compete for limited uplink resources, each LL-MAC configured to control communication over a respective physical channel between a remote unit and the base station, the at least one LL-MAC including a first LL-MAC configured to control communication over a first physical channel between a first remote unit and the base station; and a high level MAC element (HL-MAC) in the base station, the HL-MAC logically coupled to the at least one LL-MAC and configured to control communication over a plurality of physical channels including the first physical channel, wherein the LL-MAC is configured to send a general bandwidth grant of uplink resources over the first physical channel that can be used by the first remote unit to transmit data-bearing traffic to the LL-MAC, and wherein the LL-MAC is configured to receive in response thereto an explicit bandwidth request message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification