Patent ID: 8441932

Claim:
A method of efficiently allocating a downlink channel from a transmitter to a user selected from a plurality of users in a wireless network, the network providing different service applications to the plurality of users, the method comprising the steps of: (a) at a data link control (DLC) queue of the transmitter, ranking a plurality of M application layer packets to be transmitted to the plurality of users based on a quality-of-service demand associated with each application layer packet, the quality-of-service demands being associated with respective classes of service applications, the DLC queue having a length M packets, M being a natural number, M packets corresponding to P users of the plurality of users, wherein P≦M, each of the plurality of users being configured for simultaneously running several service applications having different classes; (b) dynamically changing the length M packets of DLC queue as a function of different instantaneous values of quality-of-service demands of the different service applications to which the service application layer packets relate to adjust an operating point of the network; and (c) at a scheduler of the transmitter, selecting the user having best channel conditions of P users and allocating a channel the selected user; wherein the quality-of-service demands are a function of a maximum allowed scheduling delay, a minimum allowed rate, or a minimum guaranteed throughput; wherein the value of M is calculated from max M s.t. 1 Prob{SNR i <SNR th }≦ξ rate ∀iεM s.t. 2 Prob{ D max <K i }≦ξ access ∀iεM s.t. 3 Prob{ T i ≧T min }≧1−ξ out ∀iεM where SNR th is a minimum required SNR value, SNR i is the provided instantaneous SNR value for a user i, ξ rate is an allowed rate outage, D max is a maximum allowed scheduling delay, K i is the obtained scheduling delay value, ξ access is a scheduling delay outage, T min is a minimum guaranteed throughput, T i is an obtained throughput, ξ out is a total allowed outage and the minimum allowed rate is directly related to SNR th through a rate-SNR relation.