Patent ID: 8644321

Claim:
An apparatus for scheduling synchronous packet transmissions for transmission by a single transmission entity, comprising: a synchronous packet manager for scheduling synchronous packet transmissions for transmission by the single transmission entity on a wireless downlink channel; and a synchronous packet reservation table for storing slot reservations for the synchronous packet transmissions, wherein the stored slot reservations include at least one placeholder slot reservation for at least one slot on the wireless downlink channel that is unscheduled with any synchronous or asynchronous packet transmissions at the time of reservation, wherein the at least one placeholder slot reservation is configured to prohibit scheduling of any asynchronous packet for transmission by the single transmission entity on the wireless downlink channel in the at least one slot for at least a threshold period of time while the at least one slot remains unscheduled with any synchronous or asynchronous packet transmissions, wherein the stored slot reservations for the synchronous packet transmissions are established irrespective of when synchronous packets to be transmitted are expected to arrive at the single transmission entity for transmission.