Managing communications within a wireless communications network

1. A wireless communications network for communicating with wireless communications devices using wireless communication links, the wireless communications network comprising:

a base station having a processor configured to:

measure congestion for each wireless communication link between a plurality of the wireless communications devices and the wireless communications network,

prioritize scheduling of communications with the plurality of wireless communications devices dependent upon the measured congestion, and

send a scheduling weight modifier for at least one wireless communications device, the scheduling weight modifier dependent upon the measured congestion.

2. The wireless communications network of claim 1 , wherein the congestion of communications with a wireless communications device is measured by at least one of:

measuring the number of dropped packets; and

measuring the number of packets marked congestion experienced.

3. The wireless communications network of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communications network further comprises an uplink scheduler, the uplink scheduler configured to schedule communications with a plurality of the wireless communications devices according to the scheduling weight modifier.

4. The wireless communications network of claim 3 , wherein the weighting function is dependent upon the measured congestion and at least one of:

the time elapsed since each wireless communications device was last scheduled;

the priority of each wireless communications device; and

the priority of the information each wireless communications device has to communicate.

5. The wireless communications network of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling priority of a wireless communications device is reduced if the measured congestion for its communications exceeds a threshold.

6. A method, performed in a base station in a wireless communications network configured to communicate with a plurality of wireless communications devices, the method comprising:

measuring, by the base station, a congestion rate for communications with a plurality of the wireless communications device; and

prioritizing, by the base station, scheduling of communications with the wireless communications devices dependent upon the measured congestion rate; and

sending, by the base station, a scheduling weight modifier for at least one wireless communication device, the scheduling weight modifier dependent upon the measured congestion rate.

7. A method in a gateway of a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network configured to communicate with a plurality of wireless communications devices, the method comprising:

receiving, by the gateway, a measurement of congestion for communications with a plurality of the wireless communications devices; and

sending, by the gateway, a scheduling weight modifier for at least one wireless communications device, the scheduling weight modifier dependent upon the measured congestion.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:

a base station sends measures of congestion to the gateway; and

the gateway sends a schedule weight modifier to the base station.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, carrying instructions, which, when executed by computer logic, causes said computer logic to carry out the method of claim 6 .

10. The wireless communications network of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling weight modifier is a product of a regular scheduling weight and a congestion scaling factor.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the congestion value is based on an electronic communication network (ECN) marking regime that is based on a cost of system resources per successfully transmitted bit.