Methods and apparatus for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) load control by physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) restrictions

A scheduler of a base station of a wireless network configured to schedule a downlink (DL) data on a downlink subframe directed to at least one wireless terminal, the scheduler comprising:

• a communication unit configured to receive downlink data for the at least one wireless terminal from a gateway node of the wireless network;
• a storage unit configured to buffer the downlink data;
• and
• a processing unit configured to control the communication unit and the storage unit to provide scheduling services, wherein the processing unit is configured to:
• select a control channel element (CCE) region for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carried in a control region of the downlink subframe;
• determine whether a DL assigmnent corresponding to the DL data can be allocated on the selected CCE region based on a load that will be imposed on a corresponding physical resource block (PRB) of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of a future uplink subframe that will carry an ACK/NACK response corresponding to the DL assignment;
• and
• allocate the DL assignment on the selected CCE region when the processing unit determines that the DL assignment can be allocated,
• wherein the processing unit is configured to:
• determine an uplink (UL) load of the corresponding PUCCH PRB;
• determine that the DL assignment can be allocated on the selected CCE region when the UL load of the corresponding PUCCH PRB is below a maximum UL load threshold;
• and
• determine that the DL assignment cannot be allocated on the selected CCE region when the UL load of the corresponding PUCCH PRB is not below the maximum UL load threshold;
• wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the UL load of the corresponding PUCCH PRB based on a number of ACK/NACK responses already scheduled to be carried by the corresponding PUCCH PRB.