Patent ID: 7359735

Claim:
A packet scheduling method in a radio communication apparatus having array antennas and transmitting packets to a plurality of mobile apparatuses using a plurality of fixed beams created by the array antennas, the method comprising: a first step of selecting one of the fixed beams for communication with each of said mobile apparatuses residing in the coverage of the radio communication apparatus, and associating the selected fixed beam with the mobile apparatus; a second step of estimating respective states of radio channels toward the mobile apparatuses; a third step of selecting a specific combination of fixed beams to be output, based on expectation values of inter-beam interference quantities each estimated in advance and stored, in a management table formed in a memory, in association with each of combinations of beam identifiers indicating a plurality of simultaneously transmittable fixed beams, associations between the mobile apparatuses and the fixed beams associated in said first step, and the states of radio channels estimated in said second step; and a fourth step of generating by said array antennas, the fixed beams in said specific combination selected in said third step, and transmitting packets to the mobile apparatuses corresponding to the fixed beams in the selected combination, wherein said specific combination of fixed beams is selected in said third step according to the state of radio channels toward mobile apparatuses associated with the fixed beams, from among a plurality of available combinations of fixed beams having been determined based on said management table to have inter-beam interference quantity less than a predetermined threshold.