Patent ID: 8824406

Claim:
A method of scheduling data transmission of transport blocks in an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access communication system, wherein each of said transport blocks is transmitted with a respective transmission format and transmission power in a set of physical resource blocks in a frequency domain, wherein the method comprises: identifying, by a base station, a relationship between transmission power and block error rate for a set of transmission formats, and evaluating, by the base station, alternative transmission formats and different numbers of physical resource blocks for at least one of said transport blocks by performing the steps of: a) determining for said transport block a set of alternative transmission formats with a different number of physical resource blocks, b) if said set of alternative transmission formats with the different number of physical resource blocks is not empty, determining as a function of said relationship for at least one of said alternative transmission formats and different numbers of physical resource blocks a value indicating a total power difference required to transmit said transport block with said alternative transmission format and said different number of physical resource blocks, while ensuring a target block error rate, and c) if said value indicates that a total transmission power is less, scheduling for transmission said transport block with said alternative transmission format and said different number of physical resource blocks.