Patent ID: 8873502

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, comprising: receiving, by a node of the communication system, an indicator of a first available amount of an air-interface resource of a first channel of the communication system; receiving, by the node, an indicator of a second available amount of the air-interface resource of a second channel of the communication system; receiving, by the node, a request for allocation of an amount of the air-interface resource that is less than or equal to the first available amount and to the second available amount; determining, by the node, a first channel ranking value based on the amount of the requested air-interface resource and on a first remaining amount of the air-interface resource that will be available on the first channel if the first channel is selected to satisfy the request for allocation, wherein the first channel ranking value comprises a first value within a range from a minimum ranking value to a maximum ranking value and is selected to be the maximum value when the remaining amount of the air-interface resource that will be available on the first channel if the first channel is selected is zero; determining, by the node, a second channel ranking value based on the amount of the requested air-interface resource and on a second remaining amount of the air-interface resource that will be available on the second channel if the second channel is selected to satisfy the request for allocation; and, selecting, by the node, one of the first channel and the second channel to satisfy the request for allocation based on the first channel ranking value and the second ranking channel value.