US 9560668

Patent Overview — US 9,560,668 B1

Title: Systems and methods for scheduling low-delay transmissions in a communication network

Patent number: US 9,560,668 B1
Application number: US 14/533,544
Inventor: Volkan Sevindik
Original assignee: Sprint Spectrum LLC (current assignee also listed as Sprint Spectrum LLC)
Priority/filing date: 2014-11-05
Publication (grant) date: 2017-01-31
Adjusted expiration (per source): 2035-02-13
Legal status (per source): Active
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9560668/en

Purpose: The patent addresses scheduling of low-delay transmissions in a communication network. According to the supplied text, a portion of a network shared among wireless devices may experience high load from large data traffic or poor channel conditions. High-delay communication links are described as disproportionately affected by increased traffic and poor channel conditions, making them less effective than low-delay links and reducing overall spectral and network efficiency. The disclosed approach aims to balance load, exploit channel quality variations, and provide high-quality service to users communicating through high-delay links.

Plain-language scope (as described in the excerpt): Packet transmission delay data associated with communication links is received at a base band unit (BBU). Communication links can be routed between multiple antennas of the BBU, and a link identification can be assigned to each link and each antenna in communication with the BBU. The identification numbers can be stored in the BBU and associated with one or more wireless device subscriber identities. At the BBU, a scheduling algorithm in communication with one of the antennas is selected from multiple scheduling algorithms based on the packet transmission delay data associated with at least one communication link. Packet data for at least one wireless device may then be transmitted using the selected scheduling module. Figures described include an exemplary communication system (FIG. 1), another exemplary communication system (FIG. 2), an exemplary method (FIG. 3), and an exemplary processing node (FIG. 4).

What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full claims, detailed embodiments, or the complete specification; it omits the detailed description and any omitted text. It does not establish validity, enforceability, or the scope of specific claims beyond the summarized definitions above.