Patent ID: 8254324

Claim:
A method for scheduling N terminals, wherein N is a number greater than one, at a scheduler of a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of: (a) selecting n terminals among the N terminals, wherein n is a number less than N; (b) receiving channel state information from the selected terminals and allocating wireless resources to at least one terminal among the selected terminals; (c) performing one of transmission and reception via the allocated wireless resource at the at least one terminal; and (d) newly selecting n terminals and returning to the (b) step, wherein remaining terminals not among the selected terminals inactivate the transmitting and receiving function at the steps of (b) and (c), wherein the n is a natural number selected to maximize the communication system efficiency in relation to energy consumed by the terminals; wherein the n is a natural number determined by max n ⁢ r ⁡ ( n ) e ⁡ ( n ) ⁢ ⁢ subject ⁢ ⁢ to ⁢ ⁢ 1 ≤ n ≤ N , wherein r(n) denotes an average efficiency of the wireless communication system and is determined according to a statistical feature of the channel state and n, and e(n) denotes a total energy consumed for the terminals to operation at the step (b) and the step (c).