GRANTING SCHEDULING REQUESTS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20120275391A1
• Filed: 04/29/2011
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Jiangnan Jason, Cui, Ningzhou, Liang, Frank F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,897,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/566 of the information or information source or recipient

Abstract

Embodiments include methods and apparatus for granting scheduling requests in a wireless communications system that includes an eNB, a plurality of UEs, and a public safety system. The eNB receives multiple scheduling requests from multiple UEs, where each of the scheduling requests indicates that a corresponding UE is requesting uplink data transmission resources. The eNB determines a priority value for each of the scheduling requests based on multiple scoring criteria, resulting in a plurality of priority values associated with the scheduling requests. The eNB transmits one or more scheduling request grants to a subset of the UEs, where the subset includes one or more UEs that are associated with one or more scheduling requests having relatively high priority values. In an embodiment, the multiple scoring criteria include information associated with a public safety activity (e.g., a user role, a jurisdictional coverage area, an incident type, and/or an application type).

Claims

1. A method for granting scheduling requests in a wireless communications system that includes an evolved NodeB (eNB) and a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method performed by the eNB and comprising the steps of:

receiving multiple scheduling requests from multiple UEs of the plurality of UEs, wherein each of the multiple scheduling requests indicates that a corresponding one of the multiple UEs is requesting uplink data transmission resources from the eNB;

determining a priority value for each of the multiple scheduling requests based on multiple scoring criteria, resulting in a plurality of priority values associated with the multiple scheduling requests; and

transmitting one or more scheduling request grants to a subset of the multiple UEs, wherein the subset includes one or more UEs of the multiple UEs that are associated with one or more scheduling requests of the multiple scheduling requests having relatively high priority values of the plurality of priority values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple scoring criteria include two or more criteria selected from a group consisting of an indication of quality of service between a UE and the eNB;

information associated with a public safety activity;

a UE transmit time interval;

a known quantity of data to be transmitted by the UE;

whether or not a UE periodically transmits a scheduling request;

a channel quality indicator; and

a reference signal received power indicator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple scoring criteria include information associated with a public safety activity, wherein the information associated with the public safety activity includes one or more public safety activity characteristics selected from a group consisting of a user role, a jurisdictional coverage area, an incident type, and an application type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple scoring criteria include information associated with a public safety activity, the method further comprising:

receiving the information associated with the public safety activity from a public safety system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the priority value comprises, for each of the multiple scheduling requests:

determining a partial priority value for each criterion of the multiple scoring criteria, resulting in multiple partial priority values; and

combining the multiple partial priority values to generate a total priority value, wherein the priority value for a scheduling request is related to the total priority value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the priority value further comprises, for each of the multiple scheduling requests:

adjusting the priority value determined for a scheduling request based on a channel quality indicator from a UE associated with the scheduling request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the priority value further comprises, for each of the multiple scheduling requests:

adjusting the priority value for a scheduling request from a UE based on a previously determined priority value determined for a previously received scheduling request from the UE.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

arranging the multiple scheduling requests in a queue in order of the priority values associated with the multiple scheduling requests.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein arranging the multiple scheduling requests in the queue comprises arranging the multiple scheduling requests in a multi-level queue.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the one or more scheduling request grants comprises:

determining whether resource blocks are available for scheduling;

when the resource blocks are available, assigning the resource blocks to one or more highest priority scheduling requests in the queue; and

transmitting the one or more scheduling request grants to one or more UEs associated with the one or more highest priority scheduling requests.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a buffer status report from a UE in response to transmitting a scheduling request grant to the UE;

transmitting an uplink assignment to the UE in response to receiving the buffer status report; and

receiving data from the UE in response to transmitting the uplink assignment.

12. A method for conveying data in a communication system, which implements a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, and which includes an evolved NodeB (eNB) and a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method performed by the eNB and comprising the steps of:

receiving multiple scheduling requests from multiple UEs of the plurality of UEs, wherein each of the multiple scheduling requests indicates that a corresponding one of the multiple UEs is requesting uplink data transmission resources from the eNB;

determining a priority value for each of the multiple scheduling requests based on scoring criteria that includes information associated with a public safety activity, resulting in a plurality of priority values associated with the multiple scheduling requests; and

transmitting one or more scheduling request grants to a subset of the multiple UEs, wherein the subset includes one or more UEs of the multiple UEs that are associated with scheduling requests of the multiple scheduling requests having relatively high priority values of the plurality of priority values.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the information associated with the public safety activity includes one or more public safety activity characteristics selected from a group consisting of a user role, a jurisdictional coverage area, an incident type, and an application type.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the scoring criteria also includes one or more additional criteria selected from a group consisting of an indication of quality of service between a UE and the eNB;

a UE transmit time interval;

a known quantity of data to be transmitted by the UE;

whether or not a UE periodically transmits a scheduling request;

a channel quality indicator; and

a reference signal received power indicator.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving the information associated with the public safety activity from a public safety system.

16. A communications system comprising:

an evolved NodeB (eNB) configured to;

receive multiple scheduling requests from multiple user equipments (UEs), wherein each of the multiple scheduling requests indicates that a corresponding one of the multiple UEs is requesting uplink data transmission resources from the eNB,

determine a priority value for each of the multiple scheduling requests based on multiple scoring criteria, resulting in a plurality of priority values associated with the multiple scheduling requests, and

transmit one or more scheduling request grants to a subset of the multiple UEs, wherein the subset includes one or more UEs of the multiple UEs that are associated with scheduling requests of the multiple scheduling requests having relatively high priority values of the plurality of priority values.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the multiple scoring criteria include two or more criteria selected from a group consisting of an indication of quality of service between a UE and the eNB;

information associated with a public safety activity;

a UE transmit time interval;

a known quantity of data to be transmitted by the UE;

whether or not a UE periodically transmits a scheduling request;

a channel quality indicator; and

a reference signal received power indicator.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the eNB is configured to implement a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the multiple scoring criteria include information associated with a public safety activity, the system further comprising:

a public safety system configured to communicate with the eNB to determine the information associated with the public safety activity; and

an interface between the public safety system and the eNB configured to enable the eNB to receive the information associated with the public safety activity from the public safety system.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the eNB is configured to determine the priority value for a scheduling request from a UE by

determining a partial priority value for each criterion of the multiple scoring criteria, resulting in multiple partial priority values;

combining the multiple partial priority values to generate a first intermediate priority value;

adjusting the first intermediate priority value based on a channel quality indicator from the UE associated with the scheduling request, resulting in a second intermediate priority value; and

adjusting the second intermediate priority value based on a previously determined priority value determined for a previously received scheduling request from the UE,

and wherein the eNB is further configured to arrange the multiple scheduling requests in a queue in order of the priority values associated with the multiple scheduling requests.