Patent ID: 9572149
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. In a wireless communication system in which a base station is configured to serve user equipment devices (UEs) via an air interface that spans a frequency bandwidth and that defines over time a sequence of transmission time intervals (TTIs), wherein each TTI defines a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) divided over the frequency bandwidth into a plurality of PDSCH segments each individually assignable on a per-UE basis to carry UE-specific data, and wherein each TTI further defines a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a method comprising: receiving, by the base station, data for transmission over the air interface to a particular UE; responsive to the receiving, assigning by the base station at least one of the PDSCH segments of a particular TTI for carrying the received data over the air interface to the particular UE, wherein assigning by the base station the PDSCH segment of the particular TTI for carrying the received data over the air interface to the particular UE comprises transmitting in the PDCCH of the particular TTI a downlink control information (DCI) message that specifies the assignment to the particular UE of the PDSCH segment of the particular TTI; and transmitting by the base station to the UE, in the assigned PDSCH segment of the particular TTI, both the received data and an assignment to the UE of at least one PDSCH segment of a subsequent TTI for carrying additional data to the UE in the subsequent TTI, wherein the method further comprises determining by the base station that there will be spare capacity in the assigned PDSCH segment of the particular TTI, and wherein transmitting in the assigned PDSCH segment of the particular TTI the assignment to the UE of the at least one PDSCH segment of the subsequent TTI is responsive to at least the determining that there will be spare capacity in the assigned PDSCH segment of the particular TTI.