Methods and Apparatus for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) Load Control by Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) Restrictions

A scheduler of a base station of a wireless network configured to schedule a downlink (DL) data on a downlink subframe directed to at least one wireless terminal, the scheduler comprising:

• a communication unit configured to receive downlink data for the at least one wireless terminal from a gateway node of the wireless network;
• a storage unit configured to buffer the downlink data;
• and
• a processing unit configured to control the communication unit and the storage unit to provide scheduling services, wherein the processing unit is configured to:
• select a control channel element (CCE) region for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carried in a control region of the downlink subframe;
• determine whether a DL assignment corresponding to the DL data can be allocated on the selected CCE region based on a load that will be imposed on a corresponding physical resource block (PRB) of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of a future uplink subframe that will carry an ACK/NACK response corresponding to the DL assignment;
• and
• allocate the DL assignment on the selected CCE region when it determines that the DL assignment can be allocated.