Downlink resource allocation and mapping

A non-transitory, machine-accessible medium having associated instructions that, when executed, results in a machine:

• identifying downlink resource requirements for transmission of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols to a plurality of users over a time unit of a wireless channel, wherein the downlink resource requirements are arranged as distributed virtual resource blocks;
• sorting the plurality of users according to their respective downlink resource requirements to provide a sorted list of the plurality of users, wherein a size of a first downlink resource requirement for a first user of the plurality of users is different than a size of a second downlink resource requirement for a second user of the plurality of users;
• computing indices for available downlink resource elements of the time unit of the wireless channel, wherein the available downlink resource elements are physical resource elements of one or more resource blocks, wherein individual resource blocks of the one or more resource blocks are to include information transmitted to more than one user;
• and
• assigning the available downlink resource elements to the plurality of users based at least in part on the sorted list and the computed indices.

An apparatus comprising:

• a scheduler configured to:
• identify downlink resource requirements for transmission of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols to a plurality of users over an evolved-universal mobile telephone system (UMTS) terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) downlink channel;
• sort the plurality of users according to their respective downlink resource requirements to provide a sorted list of the plurality of users, wherein a size of a first downlink resource requirement for a first user of the plurality of users is different than a size of a second downlink resource requirement for a second user of the plurality of users;
• determine available downlink resource elements of the E-UTRA downlink channel, wherein the available downlink resource elements are physical resource elements of one or more resource blocks;
• compute indices for the available downlink resource elements;
• and
• assign the available downlink resource elements to the plurality of users based at least in part on the sorted list and the computed indices;
• and
• transmit circuitry operatively coupled to the scheduler and configured to receive information to be transmitted to the plurality of users and to map the received information to the available downlink resource elements based at least in part on assignments of the available downlink resource elements to the plurality of users provided by the scheduler.