Wireless network scheduling methods and apparatus based on both waiting time and occupancy

1. A method for scheduling data blocks for transmission from a plurality of transmission elements in timeslots in a communication system, the method comprising:

determining for the transmission elements respective scaled capacity measures, each of said scaled capacity measures being scaled by a combination of a waiting time value and an occupancy value for a corresponding one of the transmission elements; and

selecting one or more of the transmission elements for scheduling in a given one of the timeslots based on the scaled capacity measures;

scheduling the selected one or more transmission elements in the given one of the timeslots and

transmitting in said given one of the timeslots;

wherein the transmission elements comprise respective queues; and

wherein the occupancy value for a given one of the transmission elements is based on a number of data blocks enqueued in the given one of the transmission elements.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining, selecting, scheduling and transmitting steps are repeated for one or more additional timeslots.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the scaled capacity measures are given by (α i W i +β i O i )r i , for values of i=1 to N, where N denotes the number of transmission elements, α i and β i are constants for transmission element i, W i is the waiting time of a particular data block of transmission element i, O i is the occupancy of the transmission element i, and r i is channel capacity of transmission element i.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein transmission element i comprises a queue, and W i is the waiting time of a head-of-line packet in queue i.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the scaled capacity measures are given by (α i Δ i +β i )O i r i , for values of i=1 to N, where N denotes the number of transmission elements, α i and β i are constants for transmission element i, Δ i is the waiting time of transmission element i, O i , is the occupancy of the transmission element i, and r i is channel capacity of transmission element i.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein Δ i is defined as T c -T last , where T c is a current time and T last is a latest time when transmission element i is scheduled.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the scaled capacity measures are given by (α i Δ i O i r i ), for values of i=1 to N, where N denotes the number of transmission elements, α i is a constant for transmission element i, Δ i is the waiting time of transmission element i, O i , is the occupancy of the transmission element i, and r i is channel capacity of transmission element i.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein Δ i is defined as T c -T last , where T c is a current time and T last is a latest time when transmission element i is scheduled.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the timeslots comprises HSDPA timeslots.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein two or more of the transmission elements are selected for scheduling in the given timeslot based on said selected transmission elements having substantially the same scaled capacity measures, said selected transmission elements all being scheduled in the given timeslot by assigning different subsets of a set of available codes to different ones of said selected transmission elements.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the set of available codes comprises a set of HSDPA codes.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the set of available codes comprises a set of codes assigned to an HS-DSCH channel of the system.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the timeslots comprise timeslots of a frame.

14. An apparatus for scheduling data blocks for transmission from a plurality of transmission elements in timeslots in a communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a scheduler coupled to the transmission elements;

the scheduler determining for the transmission elements respective scaled capacity measures, each of said scaled capacity measures being scaled by a combination of a waiting time value and an occupancy value for a corresponding one of the transmission elements, and

selecting one or more of the transmission elements for scheduling in a given one of the timeslots based on the scaled capacity measures,

and scheduling the selected one or more transmission elements in the given one of the timeslots;

the scheduler being coupled to a transmitter, said transmitter transmitting in said given one of the timeslots;

wherein the transmission elements comprise respective queues; and

wherein the occupancy value for a given one of the transmission elements is based on a number of data blocks enqueued in the given one of the transmission elements.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the scheduler comprises scheduling circuitry implemented in a processing device of the communication system.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processing device comprises a network processor integrated circuit.

17. An integrated circuit comprising:

a processing device having a scheduler scheduling data blocks for transmission from a plurality of transmission elements in timeslots in a communication system;

the scheduler being coupled to the transmission elements;

the scheduler determining for the transmission elements respective scaled capacity measures, each of said scaled capacity measures being scaled by a combination of a waiting time value and an occupancy value for a corresponding one of the transmission elements,

selecting one or more of the transmission elements for scheduling in a given one of the timeslots based on the scaled capacity measures,

scheduling the selected one or more transmission elements in the given one of the timeslots;

the processing device being coupled to a transmitter, said transmitter transmitting in said given one of the timeslots;

wherein the transmission elements comprise respective queues; and

wherein the occupancy value for a given one of the transmission elements is based on a number of data blocks enqueued in the given one of the transmission elements.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 17 further comprising memory circuitry associated with said processing device and storing one or more of said scaled capacity measures.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 17 wherein the scheduler is implemented at least in part in the form of software running on the processing device.