SCHEDULING WITH QUALITY OF SERVICE SUPPORT IN WIRELESS SYSTEM

• US 20090285196A1
• Filed: 05/15/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Jay J., Chan, Yee Sin, Farkhondeh, Taher
• Granted Patent: US 8,345,691 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/345
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/623 Weighted service order
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/626 channel conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6265 past bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• 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

Systems and methods for scheduling wireless communications of a base station with multiple user mobile stations involve grouping the user mobile stations in clusters based on a predetermined criterion, such as a QoS profile of a user mobile station. Each cluster is assigned with a cluster weight factor that defines a priority level of the cluster. For each user mobile station in each cluster, a priority index may be determined based on the cluster weight factor of a respective cluster, and throughput and fairness factors respectively selected to maximize throughput and provide fairness to user mobile stations. The user mobile stations may be served in an order based on their priority indexes.

Claims

1. A system for scheduling wireless communications of a base station with multiple user mobile stations, the system being configured for:

grouping user mobile stations in clusters based on a predetermined criterion,

for each cluster, assigning a cluster weight factor defining a priority level of a respective cluster,

for each user mobile station in each cluster, determining a priority index based on the cluster weight factor of a respective cluster and a throughput factor of the user mobile station, the throughput factor indicating a condition of a communication channel between the user mobile station and the base station, and

assigning available resources for communication between the base station and a selected user mobile station based on a relationship of the priority index of the user mobile station to the priority indices of other user mobile stations.

2. The system of claim 1, further configured to determine the priority index of a user mobile station based on a fairness factor indicative of an average data amount received by the user mobile station in a predetermined time period.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the grouping of the user mobile stations in clusters is based on quality of service (QoS) level assigned to the user mobile stations.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the cluster weight factor of each cluster corresponds to the QoS level of the user mobile stations in the cluster.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the grouping of the user mobile stations in clusters is based on Differentiated Services (DS) classes assigned to the user mobile stations.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the cluster weight factor of each cluster corresponds to the DS class of the user mobile stations in the cluster.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority index of a user mobile station is proportional to the cluster weight factor of the respective cluster.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the throughput factor of the user mobile station includes a Carrier-to-Interferences (C/I) ratio of the communication channel between the base station and the user mobile station.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the throughput factor of the user mobile station includes a data rate requested by the user mobile station.

10. A wireless system for providing communication between a base station and multiple user mobile stations, comprising:

a radio resource controller for managing communications between the base station and the user mobile stations using a shared radio link resource, and

a scheduler for controlling the radio resource controller to allocate the resource among the user mobile stations, the scheduler being configured for;

classifying the user mobile stations into clusters in accordance with a predetermined classification parameter, and

assigning the resource to a user mobile station based on a cluster corresponding to the user mobile station and a throughput factor selected to maximize throughput of a communication sector including the base station and the multiple user mobile stations.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the scheduler is further configured to assign the resource to the user mobile station based on a fairness factor selected to provide a fair access of the user mobile stations to the frequency bandwidth.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the fairness factor is indicative of an average data amount received by the user mobile station in a predetermined time period.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the throughput factor is indicative of a channel condition between the user mobile station and the base station.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the throughput factor corresponds to a Carrier-to-Interferences (C/I) ratio of the communication channel between the base station and the user mobile station.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the throughput factor corresponds to a data rate requested by the user mobile station.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the user mobile stations are classified into the clusters based on Quality of Service (QoS) levels assigned to the user mobile stations.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the user mobile stations are classified into clusters based on Differentiated Services (DS) classes assigned to the user mobile stations.

18. A method of scheduling wireless communications between a base station and multiple user mobile stations, comprising the steps of:

classifying user mobile stations into clusters based on a classification parameter,

determining an average received data rate for each user mobile station in each cluster,

determining a differentiated index for each user mobile station in each cluster, the differentiated index being determined based on a weight factor assigned to the respective cluster, a condition of a channel between the respective mobile station and the base station, and the determined average received data rate for the respective mobile station, and

serving the user mobile stations in an order based on the differentiated indexes.

19. A method of claim 18, wherein the user mobile stations include a first user mobile station of a first cluster, and a second user mobile station of a second cluster having a lower weight factor than the first cluster.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first user mobile station has a first differentiated index lower that a second differentiated index of the second user mobile station, and the first user mobile station is served later than the second user mobile station.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the first user mobile station has a first differentiated index higher that a second differentiated index of the second user mobile station, and the first user mobile station is served earlier than the second user mobile station.