Techniques for improving discontinuous reception in wideband wireless networks

A method of operating a base station in a telecommunication network, comprising:

• determining, at a base station, that a user device is currently in an active period of a discontinuous reception cycle, and whether data is present in a downlink buffer of the base station during the active period;
• receiving information, at the base station, from the user device related to an amount of data in an uplink buffer of the user device during the active period;
• increasing a service priority of a communication link of the user device during the active period of the discontinuous reception cycle based on a further determination that data is present in the uplink buffer, or data in the downlink buffer should be removed, during a transmission time interval within the active period;
• determining that the received information comprises a late buffer status report based on a further determination that the information is received while the user device is in an inactive period of a discontinuous reception cycle, and based on the buffer status being the last buffer status report transmitted by the user device;
• holding the late buffer status report at the base station until a next active period of the user device in the discontinuous reception cycle;
• determining, at the base station, whether the late buffer status report is entirely effective or partially expired;
• and
• performing one of the following procedures:
• a) after determining that the late buffer status report is entirely effective, updating an uplink buffer occupancy of the base station by the late buffer status report and increasing the service priority of the user device during the next active period of the next discontinuous reception cycle based on a determination that the late buffer status report is entirely effective, and
• b) after determining that the late buffer status report is partially expired, discarding an expired part of the late buffer status report, updating the uplink buffer occupancy of the base station by an effective part of the late buffer status report, and increasing the service priority of the user device during the next active period of the next discontinuous reception cycle.

A base station for a telecommunication network, comprising:

• a processor operable to execute instructions stored in a memory to determine that a user device is currently in an active period of a discontinuous reception cycle, and to determine whether data is present in a downlink buffer of the base station during the active period;
• a communications interface in communication with the processor, operable to receive information from the user device related to an amount of data in an uplink buffer of the user device during the active period;
• wherein the processor is further operable to increase a service priority of a communication link of the user device during the active period of the discontinuous reception cycle based on a further determination that data is present in the uplink buffer, or data in the downlink buffer should be removed, during a transmission time interval within the active period, and wherein the processor is further operable to execute instructions stored in the memory to increase the service priority of the user device by:
• generating one or more quality of service boost factors operable to multiply a corresponding one or more quality of service scheduling weights for a corresponding one or more radio bearers of the user device;
• and
• setting the one or more quality of service boost factors to a corresponding one or more values that are greater than 1.