Multi-Band Scheduler for Future Communication Systems

This paper presents a new concept for scheduling transmissions in a wireless radio system operating at multiple frequency bands: the multi-band scheduler (MBS). The MBS ensures transparency of the operation on multiple bands for the higher network layers. Special attention is paid to achieve low delay and latency when operating the system in the multi-band mode. Particularly we propose additions to the ARQ procedures to achieve this. Further, we work out in detail two deployment scenarios for multi-band scheduling. Firstly operation in a spectrum sharing context where multiple bands are used; one dedicated band for basic service and one shared extension band for extended services. Secondly we consider multi-band operation in a relay environment where the two bands have different propagation properties and relays provide extra coverage and capacity in the whole cell.