Dynamic channel quality measurement procedure implemented by user equipment for adaptive modulation and coding techniques

In a wireless communication system including a plurality of user equipment mobile terminals (UEs) and a base station, wherein a first subset of the UEs have pending downlink transmissions and a second subset of the UEs do not have pending downlink transmissions, a method of minimizing overhead signaling and optimizing radio resource utilization by restricting the transmission of channel quality measurement requests to only those UEs that have pending downlink transmissions so as to avoid unnecessary channel quality measurements performed by the UEs and also avoid unnecessary channel quality measurement requests transmitted by the base station, the method comprising:

• (a) each of the UEs in the first subset receiving from the base station a request to begin channel quality measurements, whereby the base station does not transmit a request to begin channel quality measurements to the UEs in the second subset due to not having pending downlink transmissions;
• (b) each of the UEs in the first subset performing channel quality measurements and transmitting to the base station the results of the channel quality measurements, whereby the UEs in the second subset do not perform channel quality measurements because they did not receive a request to begin channel quality measurements from the base station due to not having pending downlink transmissions;
• (c) the base station determining which of the UEs in the first subset will make the best use of radio resources;
• and
• (d) the base station sending downlink data only to the UEs determined in step (c).

In a wireless communication system including a plurality of user equipment mobile terminals (UEs) and a base station, wherein a subset of the UEs have pending downlink transmissions, a method of minimizing overhead signaling and optimizing radio resource utilization, the method comprising:

• (a) each of the UEs in the subset receiving from the base station a request to begin channel quality measurements;
• (b) each of the UEs in the subset transmitting to the base station the results of the channel quality measurements;
• (c) the base station allocating radio resources used by the UEs in the subset in response to the results of the channel quality measurements;
• and
• (d) each of the UEs in the subset receiving a communication signal from the base station that indicates a particular coding rate, modulation type and at least one allocated time slot, wherein each of the UEs in the subset prepare for reception of downlink data from the base station by setting reception parameters in accordance with the particular coding rate, the modulation type and the at least one allocated time slot indicated by the communication signal.

In a wireless communication system including a plurality of user equipment mobile terminals (UEs) and a base station, wherein a subset of the UEs have pending downlink transmissions, a method of minimizing overhead signaling and optimizing radio resource utilization, the method comprising:

• (a) each of the UEs in the subset receiving from the base station a request to begin channel quality measurements;
• (b) each of the UEs in the subset transmitting to the base station the results of the channel quality measurements;
• (c) the base station determining which of the UEs in the subset will make the best use of radio resources;
• (d) the base station sending downlink data only to the UEs determined in step (c);
• and
• (e) each of the UEs determined in step (c) receiving a communication signal from the base station that indicates a particular coding rate, modulation type and at least one allocated time slot, wherein each of the UEs determined in step (c) prepare for reception of downlink data from the base station by setting reception parameters in accordance with the particular coding rate, the modulation type and the at least one allocated time slot indicated by the communication signal.