Patent ID: 8401020

Claim:
A method to control access to a time division multiple access wireless channel from nodes deployed as either a linear or tree topology network for multihop transmissions in uplink from a requesting node to a centralized node and/or in downlink from the centralized node towards an end node, comprising: issuing network topology information from the centralized node to other nodes; computing an amount of resources needed on each individual link between adjacent nodes, by a transmitting node on that link; releasing permissions for exclusive use of a time division multiple access channel for a given time by the centralized node to each node along uplink and at least one downlink multihop path; issuing from the requesting node a cumulative request for the resources needed on each link along an end-to-end path; and discriminating between multihop links and last hop links in a frequency domain, wherein the nodes are relay nodes connected point-to-multipoint to a variable number of user terminals around the nodes for last hop traffic and each relay node collects requests from all served user terminals and the cumulative request is formed for all links along the uplink and the downlink multihop path, and the centralized node grants resources for each link in response to all cumulative requests of resources received according to a grant profile, the grant profile corresponding to a profile of requests for a link, on a condition corresponding an entire amount of requested resources and a maximum permissible net throughput for the time division multiple access channel, the grant profile being calculated by normalizing the grant profile for the link with respect to a ratio between the maximum permissible net throughput and the entire amount of requested resources, and wherein the residual throughput on the time division multiple access channel not assigned due to the normalization is assigned to links maintaining a shape of the profile of requests.