Patent ID: 8320320

Claim:
A method of scheduling transmissions in a multi-carrier transmission system, comprising, for each downlink transmission frame: partitioning the downlink transmission frame into a plurality of data regions each comprising an equal number of slots, each data region corresponding to a respective logical band, each logical band being a contiguous collection of subcarriers; for a currently active connection: a) creating a first set of logical bands not fully occupied for transmission and having a minimum boosting level making the transmission receivable by a receiving terminal; b) extracting from the first set a second set of logical bands available for allocating a maximum number of slots for downlink transmission to said active connection; and c) selecting a logical band for downlink transmission to said active connection from the second set as the logical band that, after allocating the slots to a considered connection, leaves a residual number of slots equal to or smaller than a predetermined minimum residual in the logical band; assigning a credit to the active connection, said credit expressing an amount of slots that accumulated in preceding downlink transmission frames during which the active connection was not serviced; and after selecting the logical band for downlink transmission to said active connection, updating the credit by adding a predetermined number of slots.