SIR estimates for non-scheduled mobile terminals

A method of scheduling one of a plurality of mobile terminals in a wireless communication system comprising:

• computing an expected signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of a hypothesized traffic channel with a pre-filter adapted to the non-scheduled mobile terminal that would result if the non-scheduled mobile terminal was scheduled;
• and
• scheduling one of the plurality of mobile terminals based on the expected SIR of the hypothesized traffic channel.

A base station responsible for scheduling transmissions to one of a plurality of mobile terminals in a wireless network, the base station comprising:

• a transmitter to transmit data to a plurality of mobile terminals over a time-multiplexed data channel;
• and
• a scheduler to schedule transmissions to one of the plurality of mobile terminals based on expected signal-to-interference ratios (SIR)s, wherein the expected SIRs for non-scheduled mobile terminals are based on hypothesized traffic channels with pre-filters adapted to the non-scheduled mobile terminals that would result if the non-scheduled mobile terminals were scheduled.

A non-scheduled mobile terminal responsible for assisting a base station in scheduling one of a plurality of mobile terminals comprising:

• a receiver to receive a pilot signal from the base station;
• and
• a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) calculator to determine an expected SIR of a hypothesized traffic channel with a pre-filter adapted to the non-scheduled mobile terminal that would result if the non-scheduled mobile terminal was scheduled.

A computer readable media for storing a set of instructions to estimate an expected signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of an effective traffic channel for a non-scheduled mobile terminal, the set of instructions comprising:

• instructions to compute the expected SIR of a hypothesized traffic channel with a pre-filter adapted to the non-scheduled mobile terminal that would result if the non-scheduled mobile terminal was scheduled.

A circuit to implement a process to estimate an expected signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of an effective traffic channel for a non-scheduled mobile terminal, the circuit comprising:

• an SIR processor to compute the expected SIR of a hypothesized traffic channel with a pre-filter adapted to the non-scheduled mobile terminal that would result if the non-scheduled mobile terminal was scheduled.