Adaptive initialization for wireless schedulers

A wireless base station configured with a processor to perform a method for scheduling access terminals based on a channel-aware allocation of time slots to the access terminals, the method comprising:

• receiving a request for a communication rate from one or more access terminals at a specified interval, wherein the request includes current channel conditions measured by the one or more access terminals;
• determining a number of time slots that have occurred since the initialization of each access terminal;
• generating, for each access terminal, a value that has an inverse relationship to the number of time slots that have occurred since the initialization of the access terminal;
• calculating weighted average functions of the communication rate for each access terminal based on the value;
• scheduling the access terminal from the one or more access terminals to communicate during a subsequent time slot based on the channel conditions and the weighted average functions of the communication rate associated with each access terminal;
• and
• communicating with the selected access terminal during the subsequent time slot.

A wireless system to schedule time slots for access terminals, the wireless system comprising:

• one or more access terminals to communicate over a communication network;
• and
• one or more base stations configured to select an access terminal from the one or more access terminals to communicate over the communication network for each time slot based on
• (A) weighted average functions of the communication rate that are based on alpha values assigned to the one or more access terminals, and
• (B) current channel conditions associated with each access terminal,
• wherein the one or more base stations include alpha components that are configured, for each access terminal,
• (A) to assign a dynamic alpha value that decreases as the number of previous time slots since initialization of the access terminal increases, when the number of previous time slots since initialization of the access terminal is below a specified threshold, and
• (B) to assign a constant alpha value when the number of previous time slots is above the specified threshold.