Patent ID: 8310986

Claim:
A data communications system comprising: at least one base station; at least one scheduler device; and a plurality of client devices in data communications with the scheduler device over a data communications network, wherein the data communication system provides a plurality of modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) for communication between the client devices and the base station, each MCS being assigned a data rate multiplier, the MCSs including a first MCS group and a second MCS group, wherein the scheduler device is configured to assign each client device with one of the MCSs for use in communication with the base station, wherein the first MCS group includes a plurality of MCSs that are assigned the same data rate multiplier so that the client devices that are assigned the MCSs in the first MCS group achieve equal throughput by operating at the same service rates, and wherein the second MCS group includes a plurality of MCSs that are assigned a plurality of data rate multipliers so that the client devices that are assigned the MCSs in the second MCS group achieve equal bandwidth, wherein the data rate multipliers assigned to the MCSs in the second MCS group are proportional to data rates of the second MCS group.