Quality-of-service (QoS)-aware scheduling for uplink transmission on dedicated channels

• US 7,948,936 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2005
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Lohr, Joachim, Seidel, Eiko, Petrovic, Dragan
• Primary Examiner(s): Moe; Aung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mered; Habte
• Application Number:
  US10/583,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20070121542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,069 Days
• Field of Search: 370/232, 370/252, 370/253, 370/328, 370/329, 370/330, 370/475, 370/229, 370/230.1, 370/340, 370/341, 370/342, 370/338, 370/349, 370/352, 370/395.4, 370/412, 370/441, 370/455, 370/468, 370/479, 370/522, 370/523, 370/230, 370/348, 370/35, 370/2, 370/395.21, 37039541-39543, 455/500, 455/515, 455450-4522, 709227-229
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• 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 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for scheduling in a mobile communication system where data of priority flows is transmitted by mobile terminals via dedicated uplink channels to a base station. Each mobile terminal transmits at least data of one priority flow via one of the dedicated uplink channels. Moreover, the invention relates to a base station for scheduling priority flows transmitted by mobile terminals via dedicated uplink channels to the base station. Further, a mobile terminal transmitting at least data of one priority flow via a dedicated uplink channel to a base station is provided. In order to optimize base station controlled-scheduling functions in a mobile communication system the invention proposes to provide the scheduling base station with QoS requirements of individual priority flows transmitted via an uplink dedicated channel and to adapt the mobile terminals to indicate the priority flows of which data is to be transmitted to the base stations for scheduling.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling transmissions of a mobile terminal in the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), the method comprising:

receiving at the base station from a radio network controller Quality of Service (QoS) attributes of a plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed on a MAC-e flow onto a single enhanced dedicated uplink channel (E-DCH) by the mobile terminal,

receiving a scheduling request from the mobile terminal at the base station, wherein the scheduling request (i) comprises an identifier identifying one MAC-d flow of the plurality of MAC-d flows and (ii) requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel,

determining at the base station, based on the identifier within the scheduling request received from the mobile terminal and the QoS attributes received from the radio network controller, the QoS attributes associated with the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request by associating the identifier with the QoS attributes of the plurality of MAC-d flows received from the radio network controller, and

scheduling by the base station the uplink resource for transmission of data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel by said mobile terminal, based on the identifier identifying said one MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows and said QoS attributes that are determined by said determining operation and that are associated with the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows has a priority.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the QoS attributes of a respective MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows comprise a transmission mode associated with the data of the MAC-d flow.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the transmission mode indicates whether data of a respective MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows is to be transmitted applying an additional gain factor.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling request further comprises information on a buffer occupancy at the mobile terminal and on a transmission power at the mobile terminal.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling request received by the base station is transmitted via Medium Access Control (MAC) control signaling.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein scheduling by the base station comprises transmitting a scheduling assignment from the base station to the mobile terminal, wherein the scheduling assignment indicates the uplink resource allocated to the mobile terminal for transmission of the data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel by said mobile terminal.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the QoS attributes are received from a network element terminating the radio resource control signaling of the mobile terminal.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the QoS attributes are included in a configuration message.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the QoS attributes are received by the base station from the radio network controller in a radio link setup message or a radio link reconfiguration message.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the QoS attributes are received from a serving radio network controller.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of MAC-d flows are associated to respective radio bearers between the mobile terminal and radio network controller and the method further comprises mapping QoS attributes of the radio bearers to the QoS attributes of the respective associated MAC-d flow.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the mapping of the QoS attributes comprises taking into account uplink delays on the interface between the base station and the radio network controller.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifier comprised in the scheduling request identifies the highest priority MAC-d flow.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the highest priority MAC-d flow has the highest QoS demands.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the QoS attributes comprise at least one of a transfer delay, a guaranteed bit rate, a traffic handling priority, a service type identification, a traffic class and a reordering release timer of the reordering buffer in the Medium Access Control (MAC) entity.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling request further comprises a service type indicator indicating that data of one MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel is delay-critical.

18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising considering a predetermined gain factor to be additionally applied to the transmission when scheduling the mobile terminal.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling request requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows multiplexed to a protocol data unit (PDU) on the dedicated uplink channel.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the PDU is a MAC-e PDU.

21. A base station for scheduling a plurality of transmissions of a mobile terminal in the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), said base station comprising:

a communication section adapted to receive from a radio network controller Quality of Service (QoS) attributes of a plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed on a MAC-e flow onto a single enhanced dedicated uplink channel (E-DCH) by a mobile terminal, and further adapted to receive a scheduling request from the mobile terminal, wherein the scheduling request (i) comprises an identifier identifying one MAC-d flow of the plurality of MAC-d flows and (ii) requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel,

a determining section configured to determine, based on the identifier within the scheduling request received from the mobile terminal and the QoS attributes received from the radio network controller by associating the identifier with the QoS attributes of the plurality of MAC-d flows received from the radio network controller, the QoS attributes associated with the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request, and

a scheduling section adapted to schedule the uplink resource for transmission of data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel by said mobile terminal, based on the identifier identifying said one MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows and said QoS attributes of the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request as determined by the determining section.

22. The base station according to claim 21, wherein each flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows has a priority.

23. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the scheduling request further comprises information on a buffer occupancy and on a transmission power at the mobile terminal.

24. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the communication section is adapted to transmit a scheduling assignment to the mobile terminal, wherein the scheduling assignment indicates the uplink resource allocated to the mobile terminal for transmission of the data of the plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel.

25. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the QoS attributes are included in a configuration message.

26. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the QoS attributes are received from a serving radio network controller.

27. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the identifier comprised in the scheduling request identifies the highest priority MAC-d flow.

28. The base station according to claim 27, wherein the highest priority MAC-d flow has the highest QoS demands.

29. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the QoS attributes comprise at least one of a transfer delay, a guaranteed bit rate, a traffic handling priority, a service type identification, a traffic class and a reordering release timer of the reordering buffer in the Medium Access Control (MAC) entity.

30. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the scheduling request further comprises a service type indicator indicating that data of one MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed for transmission on the dedicated uplink channel is delay-critical.

31. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the scheduling unit is adapted to consider a predetermined gain factor to be additionally applied to the transmission when scheduling the mobile terminal.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein the scheduling request requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows multiplexed to a protocol data unit (PDU) on the dedicated uplink channel.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the PDU is a MAC-e PDU.

34. The mobile terminal according to claim 33, wherein the PDU is a MAC-e PDU.

35. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the scheduling request requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows multiplexed to a protocol data unit (PDU) on the dedicated uplink channel.

36. The base station according to claim 35, wherein the PDU is a MAC-e PDU.

37. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a base station in the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) cause the base station to schedule transmissions by a plurality of mobile terminals, by:

receiving at the base station from a radio network controller Quality of Service (QoS) attributes of a plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed on a MAX-e flow onto a single enhanced dedicated uplink channel (E-DCH) by a mobile terminal,

receiving a scheduling request from the mobile terminal at the base station, wherein the scheduling request (i) comprises an identifier identifying one MAC-d flow of the plurality of MAC-d flows and (ii) requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of the plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel, and

determining at the base station, based on the identifier within the scheduling request received from the mobile terminal and the QoS attributes received from the radio network controller by associating the identifier with the QoS attributes of the plurality of MAC-d flows received from the radio network controller, the QoS attributes associated with the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request, and

scheduling by the base station the uplink resource for transmission of data of said plurality of MAC-d flows to be multiplexed onto the dedicated uplink channel by said mobile terminal based on the identifier identifying said one MAC-d flow of said plurality of MAC-d flows and said QoS attributes that are determined by the determining operation and that are associated with the one MAC-d flow identified by the identifier within the scheduling request.

38. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 37, wherein the scheduling request requests allocation of an uplink resource to the mobile terminal for transmitting data of said plurality of MAC-d flows multiplexed to a protocol data unit (PDU) on the dedicated u plink channel.

39. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 38, wherein the PDU is a MAC-e PDU.