Dynamic management of data buffering for wireless communication

摘要

Disclosed is a method and system to help manage data buffering, which may in turn help manage air interface resources. In accordance with the disclosure, when a base station detects transmitting data transmission to a WCD at a rate exceeding a defined rate cap, the base station may then predict how long it will be before a data buffer that would hold excess data for transmission to the WCD would reach a threshold fill level where the base station would increase air interface resources used for transmission to the WCD. The base station may then determine, based at least on that predicted duration, whether and/or to what extent to the increase the threshold fill level of the buffer, to help defer the buffer from reaching the threshold fill level, and thus to help defer increasing of air interface resources used for transmission to the WCD.

主权项

1. A method of managing data buffering in a wireless communication system, wherein the wireless communication system comprises a base station, the method comprising:
detecting transmission of data to a served wireless communication device (WCD) at a rate exceeding a defined rate cap;
in response to the detecting, predicting a duration T of how long it will be before a data buffer for holding excess data for transmission to the WCD will reach a threshold fill level; and based at least on the predicted duration T, increasing the threshold fill level to help defer the buffer reaching the threshold fill level, wherein increasing the buffer-fullness threshold based at least in part on the predicted duration T comprises increasing the buffer-fullness threshold by an extent that is inversely proportional to the predicted duration T, wherein the base station is configured to respond to the buffer reaching the threshold fill level by increasing air interface resources used for serving the WCD, whereby increasing the threshold fill level thus helps defer increasing air interface resources used for serving the WCD.