System and method for transmission management in software defined networks

A method for operating a communications controller, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a data plane of the communications controller, a packet of a packet flow serviced by a plurality of transmission points (TPs) controlled by the communications controller;
• classifying, by a control plane of the communications controller, the packet flow as one of a plurality of slices in accordance with at least one of a nature of the packet flow, a load status of each of the plurality of slices, and feedback information provided by the plurality of TPs, the feedback information indicating a capacity and an average served rate of each of the plurality of TPs;
• storing, by the communications controller, the packet in one of a plurality of packet queues in accordance with the classification of the packet flow, the plurality of packet queues in the data plane of the communications controller;
• determining, by the communications controller, decision metric values associated with each of the plurality of TPs according to the capacity and the average served rate of each of the plurality of TPs;
• selecting, by the communications controller, one or more selected TPs from the plurality of TPs with a greater decision metric value than others of the plurality of TPs, the selected TP further selected in accordance with a destination of the packet;
• allocating, by the communications controller, resources for the plurality of slices, the resources used by the one or more selected TPs to transfer the packet to the destination, the resources including time domain and frequency domain resources;
• and
• scheduling, by the communications controller, a transfer of the packet from the one of the plurality of packet queues to the one or more selected TPs over the data plane.

A communications system comprising:

• a plurality of transmission points (TPs) configured to serve user equipments;
• a communications controller operatively coupled to the plurality of TPs, the communications controller configured to classify a packet flow serviced by the plurality of TPs as one of a plurality of slices in accordance with at least one of a nature of the packet flow, a load status of each of the plurality of slices, and feedback information provided by the plurality of TPs controlled by the communications controller, the feedback information indicating a capacity and an average served rate of each of the plurality of TPs, to alter a classification of the packet flow in accordance with the load status of each of the plurality of slices and in accordance with feedback information provided by the plurality of TPs, to store a packet of the packet flow in one of a plurality of packet queues in accordance with the classification of the packet flow, to determine decision metric values associated with each of the plurality of TPs according to the capacity and the average served rate of each of the plurality of TPs, and to schedule transmission of the packet to the user equipments with a subset of the plurality of TPs having a greater decision metric value than others of the plurality of TPs, the communications controller comprising:
• a control plane configured to classify the packet flow as the one of the plurality of slices in accordance with at least one of the nature of the packet flow, the load status of each of the plurality of slices, and feedback information provided by the plurality of TPs, and to alter the classification of the packet flow in accordance with the load status of each of the plurality of slices, and the feedback information provided by the plurality of TPs;
• and
• a data plane operatively coupled to the control plane, the data plane configured to store the packet of the packet flow in the one of the plurality of packet queues in accordance with the classification of the packet flow, the packet flowing through the data plane during the transmission of the packet to the user equipments with the subset of the plurality of TPs.