Systems and methods for cooperative applications in communication systems

A method for operating a macro cell base station in a radio access network (RAN), the macro cell base station configured to provide communications between a first terminal node and an application server, the method comprising:

• receiving, from the first terminal node, state information which comprises a multimedia streaming status about a first user application being hosted at the first terminal node, the state information being received by an application agent module in the macro cell base station via a first application-agent cooperative communication control path established between the application agent module and the first user application, wherein the first application-agent cooperative communication control path is between the macro cell base station and the first terminal node without including a backhaul link the multimedia streaming status is associated with an expected multimedia streaming data rate required by the first user application, and the expected multimedia streaming data rate is user action dependent;
• modifying at least one scheduler parameter in response to a change of the received state information about the first user application;
• receiving downlink packets from the application server via a backhaul transceiver, and grouping the downlink packets into queues;
• and
• scheduling the queues of downlink packets for transmission from the macro cell base station to the first terminal node based on the modified at least one scheduler parameter,
• wherein based on the received state information about the first user application, the application agent module determines capabilities of the macro cell base station, determines a set of bitrate options according to the capabilities of the macro cell base station, transmits the set of bitrate options, receives a selection of one bitrate option from the set of bitrate options, and transmit the downlink packet according to the selection of the one bitrate option,
• wherein some of the downlink packets are received from the application server in response to a request from the first terminal node, and wherein the state information about the first user application includes stimulus information which indicates whether a user is waiting and is about a stimulus for the request, and
• wherein a priority level of the scheduler parameter associated with the downlink packets received from the application server in response to the request from the first terminal node is based at least in part on the stimulus information.

A terminal node, comprising:

• a transceiver configured to communicate with a macro cell base station;
• and
• a processor coupled to the transceiver and comprises a hardware processor configured to
• execute a first user application and obtain state information which comprises a multimedia streaming status about the first user application, wherein the multimedia streaming status is associated with an expected multimedia streaming data rate required by the first user application and is user action dependent,
• transmit, via the transceiver, a request for communications from an application server,
• transmit, via the transceiver, the state information about the first user application to the macro cell base station over a first application-agent cooperative communication control path established between the first user application and an application agent in the macro cell base station without including a backhaul link,
• receive, from the macro cell base station, a set of bitrate options in response to transmitting the state information about the first user application,
• determine, from the set of bitrate options, a selection of one bitrate option,
• transmit, via the transceiver to the macro cell base station, the selection of the one bitrate option, and
• receive, from the macro cell base station, data which is associated with the first user application and a dynamically changing quality of experience (QoE) based on at least the multimedia streaming status,
• wherein the state information about the first user application includes stimulus information which indicates whether a user is waiting and is about a stimulus for the request.

A method for operating a terminal node that is hosting a first user application, the method comprising:

• obtaining state information which comprises a multimedia streaming status about the first user application, wherein the multimedia streaming status is associated with an expected multimedia streaming data rate required by the first user application and is user action dependent;
• sending, via a macro cell base station, a request for communications from an application server;
• sending, via a first application-agent cooperative communication control path established between the first user application and an application agent module in the macro cell base station, the state information about the first user application, wherein the first application-agent cooperative communication control path is between the macro cell base station and the terminal node without including a backhaul link;
• receiving, via the first application-agent cooperative communication control path, a set of bitrate options in response to transmitting the state information about the first user application,
• determining, from the set of bitrate options, a selection of one bitrate option,
• transmitting, via the first application-agent cooperative communication control path, the selection of the one bitrate option;
• and
• receiving, via the macro cell base station, data that is from an application server that is associated with the first user application and has a dynamically changing quality of experience (QoE) based on at least the multimedia streaming status,
• wherein the state information about the first user application includes stimulus information which indicates whether a user is waiting and is about a stimulus for the request.