Radio Base Station Scheduling with Pathloss Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radio communications networks face challenges in achieving fair scheduling among user equipment due to channel-dependent scheduling algorithms that prioritize users with good channel conditions, leading to unfair resource allocation and increased inter-cell interference, especially for users at the cell edge.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves adding pathloss compensation to the channel quality measure in channel-dependent scheduling, which removes the spatial component of channel quality variations, allowing for fairer resource allocation and reduced inter-cell interference by using a fractional pathloss compensation parameter to adjust channel quality metrics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If channel-dependent scheduling is used to maximize cell throughput, then overall system capacity is improved, but user equipment at cell edge experience unfair resource allocation and starvation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the channel quality metric by adding pathloss compensation to the standard channel quality indicator. This parameter change transforms the scheduling criterion from purely channel-quality-based to a composite metric that includes both channel quality and pathloss compensation, enabling fairer resource allocation while maintaining system throughput
2Productivity
If resources are allocated based on instantaneous channel quality, then spectrum efficiency is maximized, but inter-cell interference increases due to correlated scheduling decisions
Solution Approach 1:
By incorporating pathloss compensation into the scheduling metric, the patent changes the resource allocation parameter to reduce correlated scheduling across cells. This parameter modification leads to more diverse scheduling decisions that decrease inter-cell interference while preserving spectrum efficiency
3Productivity
If dynamic scheduling reallocates bandwidth resources every subframe, then resource utilization is optimized, but computational complexity and signaling overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent leverages existing uplink reference signals that user equipment already transmits for other purposes. By using these self-service signals for channel quality estimation, the system avoids additional signaling overhead while maintaining dynamic scheduling capabilities
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments herein relate to a method in a radio base station (12) for scheduling a radio resource to a first user equipment (10). The radio base station (12) is comprised in a radio communications network and controls a number of radio resources to be scheduled for communication to a number of user equipments (10,11). The number of user equipments comprises the first user equipment (10) and being served by the radio base station (12). The scheduling is based on channel quality of channels used by the respective user equipments. The radio base station (12) estimates a first channel quality of a channel used by the first user equipment (10). The radio base station determines a pathloss between the first user equipment (10) and the radio base station (12), and computes a second channel quality of the channel based on the estimated first channel quality and the determined pathloss. The radio base station (12) then schedules a radio resource out of the number of radio resources to the first user equipment (10) based on the second channel quality.