Patent ID: 8339964

Claim:
A data packet traffic congestion solving method for cellular radio communication comprising a Radio Access Network (RAN), said network comprising at least one node, said node comprising a scheduler for monitoring and controlling scheduling of data packet transmissions with a plurality of user terminals (UTs), wherein the method comprises the steps of: creating a table identifying those of said UTs that belong to the same service class (P) and identifying for each UT, a period of time that the UT has been idle, when a state of traffic congestion has occurred or is close to occurring, the table being readable by the scheduler; maintaining said table as long as said congestion state is present; and providing priority to active UTs in the service class by blocking the transmission of data packets between a UT and said node in both uplink and downlink directions, when the table indicates for said scheduler that said UT has been determined to have been idle for more than a pre-determined time; wherein the creating step, maintaining step, and blocking step are controlled by the scheduler, which is a Medium Access Control (MAC) scheduler; and wherein the MAC scheduler is capable of blocking data packets waiting to be selected for transmission to or from an identified and addressed UT by dropping one or more corresponding send-tokens, representing stored data packet information belonging to the identified and addressed UT, if the identified and addressed UT is indicated IDLE in the table due to the fact that a corresponding per-UT timer has reached a predetermined stop value.