Patent ID: 8879479

Claim:
A method for scheduling Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) resources to be allocated to a transmitter station, the method comprising: communicating, at the transmitter station, via a peer-to-peer communication session, with a receiver station using existing OFDMA resources previously allocated by a base station; generating, at the base station, a request for Quality-of-Service (QoS) performance metric measurements with respect to the existing OFDMA resources; receiving the request at the receiver station, and determining measured values for the QoS performance metrics being requested for the existing OFDMA resources; and determining, at the receiver station based on the measured values for the QoS performance metrics, whether to continue using the existing OFDMA resources or whether to request an allocation of alternative OFDMA resources that are different from, and for use in place of, the existing OFDMA resources; when the receiver station determines, based on the values for the QoS performance metrics determined for the existing OFDMA resources by the receiver station, that the receiver station will continue using the existing OFDMA resources previously allocated for the peer-to-peer communication session, transmitting a resource renewal request message from the receiver station to the base station to renew allocation of the existing OFDMA resources so that the receiver station can continue using the existing resource allocation for its peer-to-peer communication session with the transmitter station; when the receiver station determines, based on the values for the QoS performance metrics determined for the existing OFDMA resources by the receiver station, that the receiver station will request an allocation of alternative OFDMA resources for the peer-to-peer communication session to prevent near/far problems, unicasting, from the receiver station to the base station, QoS performance metrics measured by the receiver station during the peer-to-peer communication session and a request for an alternative resource allocation for the peer-to-peer communication session with the transmitter station; determining, at the base station in response to the request for an alternative resource allocation for the peer-to-peer communication session with the transmitter station, an new resource allocation; and communicating the alternative resource allocation from the base station to the receiver station and the transmitter station.