Patent ID: 8175604

Claim:
A method for communicating information relating to the scheduling of uplink data transmissions, wherein a mobile terminal transmits uplink data via an Enhanced Uplink Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) of a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) to a plurality of base stations during soft handover of the mobile terminal in a mobile communication system, and wherein at least one scheduling base station of said plurality of base stations schedules uplink data transmissions of the mobile terminal in soft handover, the method comprising: determining, at the at least one scheduling base station of said plurality of base stations, scheduling information for the mobile terminal indicative of a maximum amount of uplink resources allocated to the mobile terminal for scheduled uplink data transmissions on the E-DCH by the mobile terminal, transmitting, from the at least one scheduling base station, the scheduling information to at least one other base station of said plurality of base stations to inform the at least one other base station on the mobile terminal's allocated maximum amount of uplink resources for uplink data transmissions on the E-DCH, scheduling, by the at least one other base station, at least one other mobile terminal in communication with a respective base station based on the information received from the at least one scheduling base station, determining at the at least one scheduling base station new scheduling information for the mobile terminal indicative of a new allocated maximum amount of uplink resources allocated to the mobile terminal for uplink data transmission on the E-DCH, signaling by the at least one scheduling base station the determined new scheduling information to the mobile terminal in soft handover to allocate to the mobile terminal the new maximum amount of uplink resources applicable on the E-DCH for uplink data transmissions, and informing said other base stations on the allocated new amount of uplink resources, if a difference between the new mobile terminal's allocated maximum amount of uplink resources for uplink data transmissions on the E-DCH and the previous mobile terminal's allocated maximum amount of uplink resources for uplink data transmissions on the E-DCH is larger than a predetermined threshold value.