Resource scheduling in a mobile communication network supporting machine-to-machine (m2m) and user equipment (ue) traffic

A method for scheduling radio resources among a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) and a plurality of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) terminals that are in wireless communication with a network entity in a mobile communication network, wherein the network entity allocates radio Resource Units (RUs) to the UEs and the M2M terminals, the method comprises performing the following using the network entity:

• selecting RUs to be allocated to one or more M2M terminals only from a first set of RUs containing p % of all RUs that are available for allocation over a pre-defined scheduling interval;
• allocating the selected RUs to the one or more M2M terminals;
• selecting remaining RUs to be allocated to one or more UEs from the following:
• all RUs from the first set of RUs that are not allocated to the one or more M2M terminals, and
• a second set of RUs containing (1−p) % of all RUs that are available for allocation over the pre-defined scheduling interval, wherein the first and the second sets of RUs are disjoint sets, and wherein the value of “p” is determined before the available RUs are divided into the first and the second sets;
• and
• allocating the selected remaining RUs to the one or more UEs.

A mobile communication node configured to schedule radio resources among a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) and a plurality of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) terminals that are in wireless communication with the mobile communication node in a mobile communication network, wherein the mobile communication node comprises:

• a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals to/from the UEs and the M2M terminals;
• and
• a scheduler coupled to the transceiver and configured to send radio resource scheduling information to the UEs and the M2M terminals via the transceiver, wherein the scheduler is configured to perform the following:
• allocate up to p % of all radio Resource Units (RUs) that are available for allocation over a pre-defined scheduling interval only to one or more M2M terminals, and
• allocate to one or more UEs only those RUs that are selected from the group consisting of:
• any RU that remains unallocated to the M2M terminals, and the remaining (1−p) % of the total RUs available for allocation over the pre-defined scheduling interval,
• wherein the value of “p” is determined prior to allocation of any RU over the pre-defined scheduling interval.

A mobile communication node configured to schedule radio resources among a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) and a plurality of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) terminals that are in wireless communication with the mobile communication node in a mobile communication network, wherein the mobile communication node is further configured to perform the following:

• select radio Resource Units (RUs) to be allocated to one or more M2M terminals only from a first set of RUs containing p % of all RUs that are available for allocation during a pre-defined scheduling interval;
• allocate the selected RUs to the one or more M2M terminals using one or more Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) values only from an M2M-specific set of QCI values, wherein the M2M-specific set contains QCI values defined only for M2M traffic from/to the M2M terminals, and wherein the M2M-specific set of QCI values is disjoint from a UE-specific set of QCI values to be used for UE traffic from/to the UEs;
• and
• using one or more QCI values only from the UE-specific set, allocate to one or more UEs only those RUs that are selected from the following:
• all RUs from the first set that are not allocated to the one or more M2M terminals, and
• all RUs from a second set of RUs containing (1−p) % of all RUs that are available for allocation during the pre-defined scheduling interval, wherein the first and the second sets are disjoint sets, and wherein the value of “p” is determined before the available RUs are divided into the first and the second sets.