Patent ID: 6987738

Claim:
In a communications system comprising a plurality of cells, each cell having a base station and a plurality of mobile stations, a method of scheduling packet transmission comprising: a) determining a nominal power level for all base stations in the system; b) determining an average effective data rate for all mobile stations in the system; c) using the nominal power level and average effective data rate to determine a tentative transmission schedule for each of the plurality of mobile stations in the system; d) determining an actual power value for each of the plurality of mobile stations in a particular cell; e) determining an actual effective data rate for each of the plurality of mobile stations in the cell; f) determining a present credit value for each of the plurality of mobile stations in the cell; g) determining which mobile station of the plurality of mobile stations has a lowest amount of normalized bytes transmitted, wherein normalized bytes transmitted is calculated as a function of the present credit value for each of the plurality of mobile stations in the cell; and h) scheduling for transmission, the mobile station with the lowest amount of normalized bytes transmitted.