Patent ID: 8730851

Claim:
A base station configured to establish duplex communication between the base station and a plurality of remote stations, wherein the duplex communication is partitioned into a series of frames, each frame including (i) a total integer number of slots, N, for down-link communication and (ii) a total integer number of slots, M, for up-link communication, the base station comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to assign, to each remote station, a respective down-link data rate and a respective up-link data rate for communication between that remote station and the base station, provide, for each remote station, a respective down-link slot allocation for communication between that remote station and the base station, wherein each respective down-link slot allocation comprises a number of slots of the total slots N, and provide, for each remote station, a respective up-link slot allocation for communication between that remote station and the at least one base station, wherein each respective up-link slot allocation comprises a number of slots of the total slots M, wherein each remote station has a respective weighted down-link data rate associated with the respective down-link data rate assigned to that remote station, and each remote station has a respective weighted up-link data rate associated with the respective up-link data rate assigned to that remote station, whereby a minimum of the respective weighted down-link data rates varies with the respective down-link slot allocation for each remote station, and a minimum of the respective weighted up-link data rates varies with the respective up-link slot allocation for each remote station, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine the respective down-link slot allocations of the plurality of remote stations and the respective up-link slot allocations of the plurality of remote stations so as to maximize the minimum of the weighted down-link data rates and of the weighted up-link data rates of the plurality of remote stations.