System and method for relay node flow control in a wireless communications system
AssigneeFuturewei Technologies, Inc.
InventorsYunsong Yang, Weimin Xiao, Pengfei Xia, Jianmin Lu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for relay node flow control and/or congestion control in a wireless communications system are provided. A method for relay operation includes determining a buffer status of a buffer for data to be transmitted on a communications channel allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller, computing buffer status information based on the buffer status, and transmitting the buffer status information to the communications controller.
Claims18
A method for operating a relay in a communication system, the method comprising:
- determining a buffer status of a buffer associated with a communications channel, the communications channel allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller;
- estimating a future consumption rate for the buffer in accordance with a historic throughput rate for the communications channel, wherein the future consumption rate indicates a predicted rate at which data is projected to be written into the buffer during a future time period;
- determining buffer status information in accordance with the buffer status and the consumption rate for the buffer;
- and
- transmitting the buffer status information to the communications controller, wherein the buffer status information is communicated in a buffer status report message, and wherein the buffer status report message includes concatenated buffer status information for multiple buffers in the relay.
A method for controller operation, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a relay device, buffer status information for a buffer at the relay device, wherein the buffer status information specifies a buffer status and a future consumption rate of the buffer, the future consumption rate indicating a predicted rate at which data is projected to be written into the buffer during a future period of time, wherein the buffer status information is communicated in a buffer status report message, and wherein the buffer status report message includes concatenated buffer status information for multiple buffers;
- and
- adjusting a network resources allocation for a communications channel associated with the buffer in accordance with the buffer status information, wherein the communications channel is allocated from network resources controlled by the controller.
A relay comprising:
- a receiver coupled to a receive antenna, the receiver configured to receive signals detected by the receive antenna;
- a transmitter coupled to a transmit antenna, the transmitter configured to transmit signals with the transmit antenna;
- a buffer coupled to the receiver and to the transmitter, the buffer configured to store data for a communications channels allocated from network resources controlled by a communications controller;
- and
- a controller coupled to the buffer, to the transmitter, and to the receiver, the controller configured to determine a buffer status for the buffer, to estimate a future consumption rate for the buffer in accordance with a historic throughput rate for the communications channel, the future consumption rate indicating a predicted rate at which data is projected to be written into the buffer during a future period of time, and to communicate a buffer status report message to the communications controller, the buffer status report message including buffer status information specifying the buffer status and the future consumption rate, wherein the buffer status report message further includes concatenated buffer status information for multiple buffers in the relay.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.