Method for admitting new connections based on usage priorities in a multiple access system for communications networks

Abstract

In a method for controlling admission of remote hosts to a base station in a wireless communications network based on usage priority, there are at least two user priority classes and the base station admits a threshold number of remote hosts of the lower priority class and a maximum total number of remote hosts. When a base station receives a connection request from a new user of the higher priority class, if the current total number of admitted users is less than the maximum allowable, the new user of class is admitted, otherwise, the base station checks to see if any lower priority class users are currently admitted and allow disconnection. If so, the base station disconnect the lower priority user and admits the new user. In one embodiment, the base station disconnects the “least recently used” admitted lower priority user that allows disconnection. If it is appropriate to disconnect lower priority users after they are admitted, then lower priority users are admitted as long as the total number of associated users is less than the maximum allowable admitted users. If it is inappropriate to disconnect lower priority users after they are admitted, then lower priority users are admitted only if the number of admitted users is less than the maximum number of total admitted users and the number of lower priority admitted users is less than the maximum allowable admitted number. This approach can be extended to multiple priority classes. In an alternate embodiment, lower priority class users are admitted if the total number of currently associated users of all classes is less than a second threshold, normally lower than the threshold for higher priority users, rather than being based partially (as a second threshold) on the number of currently associated users of that lower priority class.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.