System and method of scheduling radio resources in a wireless communications network

1. A method of scheduling radio resources in a packet-switched wireless communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

admitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of users, each of said packets having an associated user with an allocated radio channel;

placing the plurality of data packets in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue having a plurality of packet positions in which the packet that has been in the queue for the longest time is in the first position;

starting with the packet in the first position, sequentially selecting and analyzing each of the packets for transmission;

transmitting a selected packet if the allocated radio channel associated with the selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

temporarily holding the selected packet in its position in the queue while analyzing a selected packet in the next position in the queue, if the allocated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value; and

after a packet is transmitted, starting again with the packet in the first position and sequentially selecting and analyzing each of the packets for transmission.

2. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 1 wherein the step of analyzing each of the packets for transmission includes:

determining whether the allocated radio channel associated with a selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

if not, determining whether the selected packet has been held in the queue for a time period longer than a predefined threshold time period; and

if not, determining whether the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.

3. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 2 further comprising transmitting a selected packet if the selected packet has been held in the queue for a time period longer than a predefined threshold time period.

4. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 3 further comprising transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue if the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.

5. A method of scheduling radio resources in a packet-switched wireless communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

(A) admitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of users having associated radio channels;

(B) placing the plurality of data packets in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue having a plurality of packet positions in which the packet that has been in the queue for the longest time is in the first position;

(C) selecting for analysis, the packet in the first position;

(D) determining whether the radio channel associated with the selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

(E) transmitting the selected packet if the associated radio channel has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value;

(F) if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value, temporarily holding the selected packet in its position in the queue while analyzing a next packet in a next position in the queue to determine whether the next packet should be transmitted; and

(G) transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue whenever its associated radio channel is determined to have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value.

6. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 5 further comprising repeating steps (D) through (G) for each subsequent packet in the queue.

7. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 5 further comprising, before step (F) the steps of:

determining whether the selected packet has been held for longer than a predefined time period, if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value; and

transmitting the selected packet if the selected packet has been held for longer than the predefined time period.

8. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 7 further comprising, before step (F), the steps of:

determining whether the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed; and

transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue if the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.

9. A method of scheduling radio resources in a packet-switched wireless communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

(A) admitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of users having associated radio channels;

(B) placing the plurality of data packets in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue having a plurality of packet positions in which the packet that has been in the queue for the longest time is in the first position;

(C) selecting for analysis, the packet in the first position;

(D) determining whether the radio channel associated with the selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

(E) transmitting the selected packet if the associated radio channel has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value;

(F) retaining the selected packet in its position in the queue if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value; and

(G) selecting a next packet in the queue, and repeating steps (D) through (F) for the next packet.

10. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 9 further comprising, before step (F), the steps of:

determining whether the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed; and

transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue if the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.

11. A method of scheduling radio resources in a packet-switched wireless communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

(A) admitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of users having associated radio channels;

(B) placing the plurality of data packets in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue having a plurality of packet positions in which the packet that has been in the queue for the longest time is in the first position;

(C) selecting for analysis, the packet in the first position;

(D) determining whether the radio channel associated with the selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

(E) transmitting the selected packet if the associated radio channel has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value;

(F) determining whether the selected packet has been held for longer than a predefined time period, if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value;

(G) transmitting the selected packet if the selected packet has been held for longer than the predefined time period;

(H) retaining the selected packet in its position in the queue if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value, and the selected packet has not been held for longer than the predefined time period; and

(I) selecting a next packet in the queue and repeating steps (D) through (H) for the next packet and its user's radio channel.

12. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 11 further comprising, before step (H), the steps of:

determining whether the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed; and

transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue if the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.

13. The method of scheduling radio resources of claim 11 further comprising transmitting the packet in the first packet position whenever the associated user's radio channel is determined to have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value.

14. A system for scheduling radio resources in a packet-switched wireless communications network, said system comprising:

means for admitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of users;

a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue for temporarily holding the admitted data packets while the packets are analyzed for transmission, said FIFO queue having a plurality of packet positions in which the packet that has been in the queue for the longest time is in the first position;

means for beginning with the packet in the first position, and sequentially selecting and analyzing each packet in the queue to determine whether a radio channel associated with the selected packet has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than a historical channel quality value;

means for transmitting the selected packet if the associated radio channel has an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value; and

means for temporarily holding the selected packet in its position in the queue while analyzing the next packet in the queue to determine whether the next packet should be transmitted, if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value.

15. The system for scheduling radio resources of claim 14 further comprising:

means for determining whether a selected packet has been held in the FIFO queue longer than a predefined time period; and

means for transmitting the selected packet if the selected packet has been held in the FIFO queue longer than the predefined time period, even if the associated radio channel does not have an instantaneous radio channel quality greater than the historical channel quality value.

16. The system for scheduling radio resources of claim 15 further comprising:

means for determining whether a selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed for transmission; and

means for transmitting the packet in the first position in the queue if the selected packet is the last packet in the queue to be analyzed.