Patent ID: 7280473

Claim:
A method of scheduling transmission to a plurality of receivers over a single or multi-carrier channel for a plurality of slots constituting a frame, the method comprising: defining a respective target average transmission data rate for each receiver to be scheduled; for a current slot of said frame: a) determining an average transmission data rate for each receiver, the average transmission data rate starting at zero at the beginning of each frame; b) calculating a metric associated with each {receiver, carrier} permutation which is a function of a CIR (carrier-to-interference ratio) for the {receiver, carrier} permutation, and which is a decreasing function of the average transmission data rate for the receiver of the {receiver, carrier} permutation; c) selecting a largest metric of the metrics thus calculated, and allocating for the current slot the {receiver, carrier} permutation associated with the largest metric; d) scheduling the current slot to the {receiver, carrier} permutation associated with the largest metric; e) transmitting the current slot.