Patent ID: 7764659

Claim:
A method, comprising: allocating for each connection respective capacities of data portions to a transmission frame so that, for each transmission direction, a total capacity of all data portions of the transmission frame does not exceed a predetermined capacity, and that a sum of capacities of the data portions of each connection of the transmission frame in both transmission directions does not exceed the predetermined capacity, wherein each connection is configured to connect to a different terminal device; and setting a transmission timing of the data portions within the transmission frame at each connection in such a manner that transmission and reception intervals of each connection do not overlap in time to schedule data for transmission via at least two half duplex time division multiple access connections, wherein setting the transmission timing further comprises: selecting a reference terminal from a plurality of terminal devices; allocating, for one of the plurality of terminal devices, a downlink interval defined by a downlink start time and a downlink end time according to an uplink start time of the reference terminal; and resetting the downlink interval and selecting a different reference terminal, when the downlink interval overlaps an uplink interval defined by an uplink start time and an uplink end time of the one of the plurality of terminal devices; and wherein setting the transmission timing further comprises: determining allocation start times based on a set of capacity allocations of one transmission direction and a set of capacities of the other transmission direction; defining said set of capacity allocations for the one transmission direction of the transmission frame; setting an allocation start time for the other transmission direction of a subsequent connection, whose transmission timing directly follows a transmission timing of a selected reference connection, according to an allocation start time for the one transmission direction of the selected reference connection; setting an allocation start time for the other transmission direction of a non-subsequent connection, whose transmission timing does not directly follow said transmission timing of the selected reference connection, according to an allocation end time for the other transmission direction of a preceding connection, whose transmission timing directly precedes the transmission timing of the non-subsequent connection; and setting an allocation end time for the other transmission direction according to a sum of the set allocation start time and a value corresponding to the allocated capacity.