Patent ID: 7535839

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling admission of users to a communication system, the apparatus comprising: a scheduler configured to manage access to network resources for users already admitted to the system; and an admission control module coupled to the scheduler, the admission control module determining a predicted scheduling gain of the scheduler under an operating scenario involving admission of at least one additional user to the system, the predicted scheduling gain being processed to generate at least one performance metric which is used to make an admission control decision regarding admission of the at least one additional user to the system; wherein determining a predicted scheduling gain further comprises determining predicted scheduling gains for respective ones of a plurality of users including the users already admitted to the system and the at least one additional user; wherein predicted virtual performance measures are also determined for respective ones of the plurality of users; each of said predicted virtual performance measures identifying, for a corresponding one of the users, performance that user would have received if that user was the only user admitted to the system; and wherein the at least one performance metric comprises performance metrics determined for respective ones of the plurality of users; each of said performance metrics being determined for a corresponding one of the users based on the predicted scheduling gain and predicted virtual performance measure for that user.