Patent ID: 7933218

Claim:
A method of power allocation and channel allocation to connections in a multi-channel access based wireless communications system in which each connection is acting independently of the other connections, and a connection is using a plurality of communication channels simultaneously, the communication channels on which transmissions take place in the system being generally orthogonal, the method comprising the steps of: measuring the quality of each channel for each connection, and expressing the quality in terms of obtained data bit rate, repeating the measurements at successive time steps, wherein the steps comprise: (a) using the measurement results, pertaining to an individual connection, from one or more previous time steps in order to allocate, in the following time step, to the same connection an average power of all channels the same connection uses, said allocation being controlled by an outer fairness loop balancing said average power against an average data rate in the connection, the outer fairness loop having a target relation such that when said average data rate decreases said average power increases up to a maximum value, (b) allocating, in said same following time step, to the same connection power among individual ones of said all channels, said latter allocation in step (b) being controlled by an inner capacity loop balancing the power in between said all channels against the corresponding bit-rates obtained on said all channels, the inner capacity loop having a target relation such that channels on which the obtained data rate is high are allocated more power than channels on which the obtained data rate is low, and (c) combining the results from said two allocation steps (a) and (b) in order to determine the actual transmission power to be used on the individual ones of said all channels of said individual connection at said same following time step.