Patent ID: 8423033

Claim:
In a wireless communication system arranged as a tree structure having a plurality of nodes, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is either a subscriber node or a base station node, wherein each base station node is arranged to serve one or more child nodes directly over a respective air interface, and wherein a first base station node directly serves a plurality of child nodes each over a respective air interface, the plurality of child nodes including at least one child base station node that itself directly serves at least one child subscriber node, a method comprising: determining a total number of descendant subscriber nodes of the first base station node; and using the total number as a basis to proportionally allocate a quantity of data bandwidth at the first base station node for distribution of the data bandwidth among the total number of descendant subscriber nodes of the first base station node, wherein using the total number as a basis to proportionally allocate the quantity of data bandwidth at the first base station node comprises (i) dividing the quantity of data bandwidth by the total number of descendant subscriber nodes to establish a per-subscriber bandwidth ration, (ii) allocating to each child subscriber node, if any, of the first base station node the per-subscriber bandwidth ration, and (iii) allocating to each child base station node of the first base station node a mathematical product of the per-subscriber bandwidth ration and a count of descendant subscriber nodes of the child base station node.