Half-Duplex Satellite Terminal MAC Scheduling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Half-duplex radios in satellite communication systems face performance degradation due to concurrent data transmission and reception issues, leading to collisions and loss of information, as conventional scheduling approaches fail to effectively manage downlink and uplink communications.
Innovation Solution
A specialized HD controller module in the MAC layer coordinates DL and UL schedulers, providing flexible instructions based on factors like QoS, throughput, and buffer sizes to optimize radio resource allocation and prevent collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If half-duplex radios are used in satellite communication systems, then cost is reduced and power consumption is lowered, but concurrent data transmission and reception cannot be achieved leading to collisions and information loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the base station schedule and announce time slots for downlink and uplink transmissions before the actual data transmission occurs. This allows half-duplex customer terminals to know in advance when to switch between receiving and transmitting modes, preventing collisions and enabling reliable concurrent communication without requiring full-duplex capability.
2Device complexity
If conventional scheduling approaches are used for downlink and uplink communications, then system simplicity is maintained, but performance degradation occurs due to collisions and information loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the scheduling of downlink and uplink communications into a unified time-division framework. The base station creates an integrated schedule that coordinates both DL and UL transmissions across multiple time slots, ensuring that customer terminals switch modes at appropriate boundaries. This combined approach maintains relative system simplicity while eliminating the collisions and performance degradation that occur with independent conventional scheduling.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies directed to scheduling transmissions between a satellite system and customer terminals (CTs) with half-duplex (HD) radios are described. A communication system includes a radio, a modem with a HD controller, a downlink (DL) scheduler, and an uplink (UL) scheduler. The HD controller determines a first set of HD CTs that are eligible DL transmissions for a first radio frame and a second set of HD CTs that are eligible for UL transmissions for a second radio frame. The HD controller determines a throughput value and buffer information about each of the first set and the second set of HD CTs. The HD controller determines a first subset of HD CTs for DL scheduling and a second subset of HD CTs for UL scheduling. The DL scheduler schedules radio resources for a first radio frame and the UL scheduler schedules radio resources for a second radio frame.