Burst-level resource allocation in cellular systems

Abstract

Bursts of additional bandwidth (e.g., one or more supplemental channels or a channel having variable bandwidth) is assigned to users (e.g., high-speed data users) in a cellular telecommunication system. A request for assignment of additional bandwidth may be an initial request, a continuation request for an on-going burst, or a retry request after a previously rejected request. In any case it is determined whether to grant or reject the request. If the request is rejected, instructions are given to submit a retry request after a specified backoff time. The present invention may be implemented using either an asynchronous approach or a synchronous approach. According to the asynchronous approach, all requests are handled asynchronously. According to the synchronous approach, initial requests are handled asynchronously, but continuation requests and retry requests are handled synchronously at epoch times that coincide with specific time slots.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.