Multipoint Radio Link Control (RLC) Coordinator for Loosely Coordinated Multipoint Communications

Abstract

Backhaul resource utilization efficiency can be improved by performing lower-layer decoding of uplink transmissions at access points to obtain transport blocks carried by the uplink transmissions, and then strategically scheduling the transport blocks over backhaul links extending between the access points and network nodes. Upon reception, the network nodes may perform radio link control (RLC) decoding of the transport blocks to obtain the uplink data. Transport blocks may be scheduled a manner that prioritizes time-sensitive data (e.g., voice traffic), or in a manner that strategically routes transport blocks over backhaul paths to increase the overall utilization of backhaul resources.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.