Radio access networks in which mobile devices in the same communication cell can be scheduled to use the same airlink resource

In a communication system in a cellular network, where the communication system comprises a processing system comprising a controller and remote units, where the remote units are configured to communicate with the controller and wherein the remote units comprise radio frequency transceivers to communicate with mobile devices within a communication cell of the cellular network, at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that are executable by the processing system to perform operations comprising:

• estimating signal strength experienced by at least some of the mobile devices;
• identifying, based at least on the signal strength, at least two of the mobile devices that are suitable for scheduling for simultaneous communication in the same communication cell on a same airlink resource;
• and
• scheduling said at least two mobile device for the simultaneous communication in the same communication cell on the same airlink resource, wherein each of said at least two mobile devices uses at least one of the remote units for the simultaneous communication.