Patent ID: 8010122

Claim:
A method of scheduling at least one of a plurality of mobile stations for data transmission in a multi-carrier wireless communication system, the method comprising: creating, by a network device, a ranking matrix that includes a ranking list for each of a plurality of carriers, the ranking list including a ranking value for each of the plurality of mobile stations, the ranking value being based on RF measurements received from the plurality of mobile stations and a Quality of Service (QoS) of the plurality of mobile stations; and first scheduling, by the network device, at least one mobile station on at least one of the plurality of carriers of the multi-carrier wireless communication system based on the ranking matrix and a capacity of the plurality of carriers, the at least one mobile station being scheduled on the at least one of the plurality of carriers once per scheduling cycle, the first scheduling including, selecting a mobile station to schedule and the carrier based on the ranking value corresponding to a highest priority, determining if the selected carrier can support the selected mobile station during a scheduling interval based on a capacity of the selected carrier, the determining step, calculates a load for transmitting data from the selected mobile station, and determines if the selected mobile station should be scheduled on the selected carrier based on the calculated load, and determines the calculated load would overload the selected carrier, the second scheduling step does not schedule the selected mobile station and the selected mobile station is marked as processed, and second scheduling the selected mobile station if the determining step determines the calculated load would not overload the selected carrier, the selected mobile station is marked as processed, and a carrier load of the carrier is increased by the calculated load.