Patent ID: 8355402
Filing Date: 2013-01-15
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for enhancing quality of service (QoS) in a multi-hop communication network under a distributed scheduling, comprising: determining unused portions of per-hop QoS metric values in transmitting data in nodes of a multi-hop path; communicating information on unused portions of per-hop QoS metric values in transmitting data obtained at one node to the next downstream node along the multi-hop path; allowing at least part of the unused portions of per-hop QoS metric values to be used by the next downstream node in data transmission to enhance QoS in the multi-hop path; after a data unit is scheduled for transmission, determining whether an unused portion of a per-hop QoS metric value associated with the data unit is equal to or exceeds a threshold; communicating information on the unused portion of the per-hop QoS metric value to the next downstream node when the unused portion of QoS metric value is equal to or exceeds the threshold; and operating the next downstream node to add the unused portion of the per-hop QoS metric value received in an in-band signaling from the upstream node to a pre-assigned value for the per-hop QoS metric value to produce a new value for the per-hop QoS metric value.