Patent ID: 8457095
Filing Date: 2013-06-04
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A bandwidth recovery method for a communication system, comprising: transmitting a first uplink scheduling message to at least a first communication node and a second communication node within a plurality of communication nodes of the communication system, wherein the first communication node and the second communication node share a communication channel, and the first uplink scheduling message indicates uplink durations within the communication channel that are assigned to the first communication node and the second communication node and a first transmission start time, respectively; detecting if the communication channel is in an idle state after the first transmission start time, wherein the first transmission start time is a timing when the first communication node is allowed to start transmitting data; and transmitting a second uplink scheduling message to the plurality of the communication nodes when the communication channel is found staying in the idle state after the first transmission start time, wherein the second uplink scheduling message indicates an uplink duration within the communication channel that is assigned to at least one of the first communication node and the second communication node within the communication channel; wherein the first uplink scheduling message defines a node transmission start time of each communication node based on the first transmission start time and uplink durations, and the node transmission start time of the second communication node remains unchanged according to a scheduling setting defined in the second uplink scheduling message, and at least one of the communication nodes transmits data according to the first uplink scheduling message after the second uplink scheduling message has been transmitted to all of the plurality of the communication nodes; wherein the scheduling setting of the second uplink scheduling message is different from the scheduling setting of the first uplink scheduling message, and the second uplink scheduling message maintains an uplink duration of at least the second communication node that is originally defined in the scheduling setting of the first uplink scheduling message; wherein the second uplink scheduling message further re-arranges an uplink duration of the first communication node that is originally defined in the scheduling setting of the first uplink scheduling message, thereby distributing an additional duration, which is within a remaining available duration of the uplink duration of the first communication node that is originally defined in the scheduling setting of the first uplink scheduling message, to the second communication node.