Packet aware scheduler in wireless communication systems

• US 8,971,259 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2011
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Teague, Edward Harrison, Horn, Gavin Bernard
• Primary Examiner(s): Gidado, Rasheed
• Application Number:
  US13/030,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20110205987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,474 Days
• Field of Search: 370/329, 370/230, 370/437, 370/235, 370/231, 370/335, 370/350, 370/328, 370/516
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/56 implementing delay-aware scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/788 Autonomous allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Apparatuses and methodologies are described that facilitate packet aware scheduling are provided. In some embodiments, if all of the information of a packet cannot be scheduled in a single transmission period, additional resources may be assigned to transmission of the contents of the packet based upon latency requirements and/or transmission constraints of the packet.

Claims

1. An apparatus that facilitates scheduling in a wireless communication environment, comprising:

a scheduler that schedules information obtained from application packets to channel resources; and

a hybrid interface that provides to the scheduler (i) in arbitrarily sized chunks, a subset of less than all of the information in one of the packets and (ii) information associated with the packet from which the subset is drawn, wherein the associated information comprises an indication of a remaining number of bits in the packet from which the subset is drawn.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the associated information comprises a timestamp of the packet from which the subset is drawn.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the scheduler determines if all information from each of the application packets has been scheduled for a single transmission period or if all of the information from each of the application packets has not been scheduled for the single transmission period, and determines from the associated information latency constraints and/or transmission constraints for those packets for which not all of the information has been scheduled.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the scheduler, if there are latency constraints and/or transmission constraints for any application packet, assigns additional resources to schedule transmission of all information bits in the single transmission period for that application packet.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the scheduler, if there are no latency constraints and/or transmission constraints for an application packet, schedules transmission of all information bits for that application packet in multiple transmission periods.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a base station or an access point.

7. An electronic device comprising:

a memory that stores a plurality of packets for a user including information to be transmitted over a wireless link, each of the plurality of packets comprising a plurality of bits; and

a processor coupled with the memory, the processor configured to fragment each of the plurality of packets into arbitrarily sized subsets of less than all the bits in the packet and to determine an assignment of transmission resources, for transmission over the wireless link to the user, based upon a number of remaining bits in each packet being fragmented.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, further comprising a hybrid interface that determines the number of information bits in each packet being fragmented.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, further comprising a scheduler that determines whether to attempt to schedule additional transmission resources to the user based on latency constraints of an application of any packet for which not all of the bits have been scheduled in a single transmission period.

10. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to allow transmission of the bits from a packet in multiple transmission periods unless a latency constraint of an application of the packet prevents such transmission.

11. A method for scheduling transmission over a wireless link, comprising:

fragmenting, at a transmitting entity, each of a plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link for a user into arbitrarily sized subsets of less than all the bits in the packet;

determining, at the transmitting entity, a remaining number of bits of each of the plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link; and

scheduling, at the transmitting entity, transmission resources for the user based in part upon the remaining number of bits in each packet being fragmented.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, if there are latency constraints and/or transmission constraints for a packet, assigning additional resources to schedule transmission of the packet for the user in a single transmission period.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising, if there are no latency constraints and/or transmission constraints for a packet, scheduling transmission for the information of the packet in multiple transmission periods.

14. An apparatus for scheduling transmission over a wireless link, comprising:

means for fragmenting at the apparatus each of a plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link for a user into arbitrarily sized subsets of less than all the bits in the packet;

means for determining at the apparatus a remaining number of bits of each of the plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link; and

means for scheduling at the apparatus transmission resources for the user based in part upon the remaining number of bits in each packet being fragmented.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations for scheduling transmission over a wireless link, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:

code for fragmenting by the processor each of a plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link for a user into arbitrarily sized subsets of less than all the bits in the packet;

code for determining by the processor a remaining number of bits of each of the plurality of packets to be transmitted over the wireless link; and

code for scheduling by the processor transmission resources for the user based in part upon the remaining number of bits in each packet being fragmented.

16. An apparatus for facilitating scheduling in a wireless communication environment, comprising:

memory configured to store a packet generated for a user application, the packet comprising a plurality of information units to be transmitted over a wireless link;

a hybrid interface configured to fragment the packet into at least two subsets, each containing a different number of more than one but less than all of the information units in the packet, and to generate status information associated with the packet, wherein the status information comprises an indication of a remaining number of bits of the packet yet to be transmitted; and

a scheduler configured to schedule transmission resources for the fragmented subsets based on the status information.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the status information comprises a timestamp associated with the generation of the packet.