System and Method for Relay Node Flow Control in a Wireless Communications System
AssigneeFuturewei Technologies, Inc.
InventorsYunsong Yang, Weimin Xiao, Pengfei Xia, Jianmin Lu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for relay node flow control and/or congestion control in a wireless communications system are provided. A method for relay operation includes determining a buffer status of a buffer for data to be transmitted on a communications channel allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller, computing buffer status information based on the buffer status, and transmitting the buffer status information to the communications controller.
Claims28
A method for operating a relay in a communication system, the method comprising:
- determining a buffer status of a buffer for data to be transmitted on a communications channel allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller;
- determining a consumption rate or a filling rate for the buffer;
- determining buffer status information based on the buffer status and either the consumption rate or the filling rate for the buffer;
- and
- transmitting the buffer status information to the communications controller.
A method for controller operation, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a relay device, buffer status information for a buffer at the relay device, wherein the buffer status information comprises a buffer status of at least one uplink buffer and at least one downlink buffer at the relay device;
- and
- adjusting a network resources allocation for a communications channel associated with the buffer based on the buffer status information, wherein the communications channel is allocated from network resources controlled by the controller.
A relay comprising:
- a receiver to be coupled to a receive antenna, the receiver configured to receive signals detected by the receive antenna;
- a transmitter to be coupled to a transmit antenna, the transmitter configured to transmit signals with the transmit antenna;
- uplink buffers coupled to the receiver and to the transmitter, the uplink buffers configured to store data for uplink communications channels allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller;
- downlink buffers coupled to the receiver and to the transmitter, the downlink buffers configured to store data for downlink communications channels allocated from the network resources controlled by the communications controller;
- and
- a controller coupled to the uplink buffers, to the downlink buffers, to the transmitter, and to the receiver, the controller configured to determine a buffer status for the uplink buffers and the downlink buffers, to compute buffer status information from the buffer status, and to transmit the buffer information to the communications controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.