Radio scheduler and data plane interface

Abstract

Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a MAC layer architecture for a base station may comprise a radio scheduler disposed in a control plane separate from the data plane modules of a data plane.

1 . A base station, comprising:
 a data plane capable of implementing one or more data plane processes, said processes including receiving one or more bandwidth requests in a first radio frame from one or more mobile stations for uplink transmissions from said one or more mobile stations;   a control plane capable of implementing one or more control plane processes; and   a radio scheduler disposed in the control plane for implementing radio scheduling processes;   wherein processing in the data plane is separate from radio scheduling processing performed by the radio scheduler, and the radio scheduler is capable of coupling with the data plane via a data plane interface.   
   
   
       2 . A base station as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising a configuration and media access control (MAC) signaling module disposed in the control plane and coupled to the radio scheduler. 
   
   
       3 . A base station as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the control plane comprises a first processor and the data plane comprises a second processor or processors of a multiprocessor system. 
   
   
       4 . A base station as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the control plane comprises a first processor core and the data plane comprises a second core or cores of a multicore processor. 
   
   
       5 . A base station as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the control plane and the data plane share a common memory. 
   
   
       6 . A method, comprising:
 receiving one or more bandwidth requests in a first radio frame from one or more mobile stations for uplink transmissions from one or more mobile stations, the one or more bandwidth requests being provided from a data plane as an aggregated message once per radio frame to a radio scheduler in a control plane;   receiving a message for downlink transmission of one or more packets from a core network to be transmitted to one or more of the mobile stations, the message being provided from the data plane as an aggregated message once per radio frame to the radio scheduler in the control plane; and   scheduling at least one or more uplink transmissions or one or more downlink transmissions, or combinations thereof, by the radio scheduler.   
   
   
       7 . A method as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the one or more bandwidth requests is provided by a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU)/physical service data unit receive (PHY SDU Rx) module in the data plane to the radio scheduler in the control plane. 
   
   
       8 . A method as claimed in  claim 6  wherein a scheduling decision of said scheduling is provided by the radio scheduler in the control plane to a media access control service data unit transmission (MAC SDU TX) module in the data plane. 
   
   
       9 . A method as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the media access control service data unit transmission (MAC SDU Tx) module provides receive/transmit physical (Rx/Tx PHY) vectors, a downlink map, an uplink map, or one or more media access control protocol data units (MAC PDUs), to a physical service data unit transmission (PHY SDU Tx) module in response to the scheduling decision. 
   
   
       10 . A method as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein a condition of a radio interface between a base station and one or more mobile station is fed back to the radio scheduler via an uplink scheduler request provided to the radio scheduler in the control plane from a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU)/physical service data unit receive (PHY SDU Rx) module in the data plane. 
   
   
       11 . A computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions, which when accessed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
 receiving one or more bandwidth requests in a first radio frame from one or more mobile stations for uplink transmissions from one or more mobile stations, the one or more bandwidth requests being provided from a data plane as an aggregated message once per radio frame to a radio scheduler in a control plane;   receiving a message for downlink transmission of one or more packets from a core network to be transmitted to one or more of the mobile stations, the message being provided from the data plane as an aggregated message once per radio frame to the radio scheduler in the control plane; and   scheduling at least one or more uplink transmissions or one or more downlink transmissions, or combinations thereof, by the radio scheduler.   
   
   
       12 . The computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more bandwidth requests is provided by a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU)/physical service data unit receive (PHY SDU Rx) module in the data plane to the radio scheduler in the control plane. 
   
   
       13 . The computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions of  claim 11 , wherein a scheduling decision of said scheduling is provided by the radio scheduler in the control plane to a media access control service data unit transmission (MAC SDU TX) module in the data plane. 
   
   
       14 . The computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions of  claim 11 , wherein the media access control service data unit transmission (MAC SDU Tx) module provides receive/transmit physical (Rx/Tx PHY) vectors, a downlink map, an uplink map, or one or more media access control protocol data units (MAC PDUs), to a physical service data unit transmission (PHY SDU Tx) module in response to the scheduling decision. 
   
   
       15 . The computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions of  claim 11 , wherein a condition of a radio interface between a base station and one or more mobile station is fed back to the radio scheduler via an uplink scheduler request provided to the radio scheduler in the control plane from a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU)/physical service data unit receive (PHY SDU Rx) module in the data plane.