Scheduler having queue for scheduling transmission of items from a station in a wireless network

1. An apparatus comprising:

a scheduler scheduling items to be transmitted by a subscriber station in a wireless network in accordance with bandwidth assigned to the items by a base station in the network; and

a queue into which the items to be transmitted by the subscriber station are placed, the queue having a first section into which items for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station are placed, and a second section into which items for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station are placed,

wherein the scheduler schedules the items in the first section of the queue for transmission by the subscriber station before the items in the second section of the queue are scheduled for transmission, and

wherein items in the second section of the queue are dynamically moved to the first section of the queue as requests for bandwidth assignment for the items in the second section of the queue are made to the base station.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein either the first section of the queue, the second section of the queue, or both the first section of the queue and the second section of the queue may be empty at any time.

3. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the apparatus has a plurality of queues into which the items to be transmitted by the subscriber station are placed and items in a predetermined class of service flows are automatically placed in a same queue of the plurality of queues.

4. An apparatus comprising:

means for scheduling items to be transmitted by a subscriber station in a wireless network in accordance with bandwidth assigned to the items by a base station in the network; and

a queue into which items to be transmitted by the subscriber station are placed, the queue having a first section into which items for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station are placed, and a second section into which items for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station are placed,

wherein the means for scheduling schedules the items in the first section of the queue for transmission by the subscriber station before the items in the second section of the queue are scheduled for transmission,

wherein items in the second section of the queue are dynamically moved to the first section of the queue as requests for bandwidth assignment for the items in the second section of the queue are made to the base station.

5. An apparatus as in claim 4 , wherein the items to be transmitted by the subscriber station are user data packets or management messages.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a scheduler scheduling items to be transmitted by a subscriber station in a wireless network in accordance with an allocation of bandwidth from a base station; and

a queue into which items to be transmitted by the subscriber station are placed, the queue having a first section into which items for a request for the allocation of bandwidth has been made are placed, and a second section into which items for which the allocation of bandwidth has not yet been made are placed, wherein the first section is at the head of the queue,

wherein items in the second section of the queue are dynamically moved to the first section of the queue as requests for bandwidth assignment for the items in the second section of the queue are made to the base station.

7. An apparatus as in claim 6 , wherein items for which the allocation is not required before being scheduled to be transmitted are placed in the first section of the queue.

8. An apparatus as in claim 6 , wherein either the first section of the queue, the second section of the queue, or both the first section of the queue and the second section of the queue may be empty at any time.

9. A method comprising:

placing items into a first section of a queue of a scheduler of a subscriber station in a wireless network for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to a base station;

placing items into a second section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station;

scheduling the items in the queue to be transmitted by the subscriber station in accordance with bandwidth assigned to the items by the base station in accordance with requests for bandwidth assignment made to the base station; and

dynamically moving items in the second section of the queue to the first section of the queue as requests for bandwidth assignment for the items in the second section of the queue are made to the base station,

wherein the items in the first section of the queue are scheduled to be transmitted by the subscriber station before the items in the second section of the queue are scheduled to be transmitted by the subscriber station.

10. A method as in claim 9 , wherein items belonging to Unsolicited Grant Service (UGS) flows are placed immediately into the first section of the queue.

11. A method as in claim 9 , wherein either the first section of the queue, the second section of the queue, or both the first section of the queue and the second section of the queue may be empty at any time.

12. A method comprising:

placing items into a first section of a queue of a scheduler of a subscriber station in a wireless network for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to a base station;

placing items into a second section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station;

scheduling the items in the queue to be transmitted by the subscriber station in accordance with bandwidth assigned to the items by the base station in accordance with requests for bandwidth assignment made to the base station;

placing contention items into a contention section of the first section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station;

placing non-contention items into a non-contention section of the first section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station;

placing contention items into a contention section of the second section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station; and

placing non-contention items into a non-contention section of the second section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station,

wherein the items in the first section of the queue are scheduled to be transmitted by the subscriber station before the items in the second section of the queue are scheduled to be transmitted by the subscriber station, and

wherein the queue is a jitter queue or a latency queue.

13. A method comprising:

scheduling items to be processed by a subscriber station in a wireless network in accordance with a service assigned to the items by a base station in the network;

grouping items together in a non-requested section of a queue for which assignment of the service by the base station has not yet been requested;

processing any items in a requested section of the queue before processing items in the non-requested section of the queue; and

dynamically moving items in the second section of the queue to the first section of the queue as requests for bandwidth assignment for the items in the second section of the queue are made to the base station.

14. A method as in claim 13 , wherein the service is an allocation of bandwidth for the items from the base station.

15. A method as in claim 13 , wherein either the requested section of the queue, the non-requested section of the queue, or both the requested section of the queue and the non-requested section of the queue may be empty at any time.

16. A method comprising:

scheduling items to be processed by a subscriber station in a wireless network in accordance with a service assigned to the items by a base station in the network;

grouping items together in a non-requested section of a queue for which assignment of the service by the base station has not yet been requested;

processing any items in a requested section of the queue before processing items in the non-requested section of the queue; and

grouping contention items together and grouping non-contention items together,

wherein the queue is a jitter queue or a latency queue.

17. A method as in claim 16 , wherein the grouping contention items together and the grouping non-contention items together further comprises:

grouping contention items into a contention section of the requested section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station,

grouping non-contention items into a non-contention section of the requested section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has been made to the base station,

grouping contention items into a contention section of the non-requested section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station, and

grouping non-contention items into a non-contention section of the second section of the queue for which a request for bandwidth assignment has not yet been made to the base station.