Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a method for performing in an access node time- and frequency scheduling for a cell comprising two or more subcells. The method comprises the following steps. The access node selects a set of one or more active beams for each of at least two of subcells comprised in the two or more subcells from beams produced by an antenna array of the access node. The access node performs time-scheduling for the cell in common. Finally, the access node performs frequency-scheduling separately and in parallel for each of the at least two subcells for transmission using a corresponding set of one or more active beams.

Abstract: A base station including a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store computer readable instructions. The processor is configured to execute the computer readable instructions such that the memory, the processor and the computer readable instructions cause the base station to order a plurality of reception devices according to an amount of transmission resources required to transmit transmission data to each reception device, assign transmission resources in a time slot in blocks to each of the plurality of reception devices in order from a first reception device requiring the least amount of transmission resources to a reception device among the plurality of reception devices requiring a greatest amount of transmission resources, the time slot being divided into a plurality of symbols, and transmit the transmission data to the plurality of reception devices using the assigned transmission resources.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a method for performing in an access node time- and frequency scheduling for a cell comprising two or more subcells. The method comprises the following steps. The access node selects a set of one or more active beams for each of at least two of subcells comprised in the two or more subcells from beams produced by an antenna array of the access node. The access node performs time-scheduling for the cell in common. Finally, the access node performs frequency-scheduling separately and in parallel for each of the at least two subcells for transmission using a corresponding set of one or more active beams.

Abstract: There are provided measures for inter-cell interference coordination in heterogeneous networks. Such measures exemplarily include determining a strongest interfering macro cell access node, said strongest interfering macro cell access node operating in time based subframes, wherein said subframes include almost blank transmission subframes during which said strongest interfering macro cell access node is muted and active transmission subframes during which said strongest interfering macro cell access node is transmitting, reporting said strongest interfering macro cell access node, and receiving a transmission in a subframe, wherein a control parameter of said transmission is set based on whether said subframe corresponds to an almost blank transmission subframe of said strongest interfering macro cell access node or to an active transmission subframe of said strongest interfering macro cell access node.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, apparatus' and systems for enabling communication over wireless intermittently connected networks. A system includes at least one dispatch center for managing various communications of the intermittently connected network, a plurality of geographically separated nodes and a plurality of mobile terminals. The at least one mobile terminal is configured to provide a communication network to the plurality of geographically separated nodes for the transfer of information among the plurality of geographically separated nodes. The information is at least in part based upon the various communications managed and communicated to at least one mobile terminal by the at least one dispatch center, and comprises one or more of authentication parameters, security credentials, provisioning parameters, routing information, connection setup messages, services, messages, and diagnostics.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for bandwidth management. The method includes receiving a value representative of a target bandwidth from a remote device; storing a data packet in a data queue; associating a quantum of bandwidth to the data queue, wherein the quantum of the bandwidth is a function of at least the target bandwidth and time; and transmitting the data packet based on at least the quantum associated with the data queue. A method and apparatus for network congestion control are also provided.

Abstract: A method, comprising the steps of appending a data packet to a data stream queue (“DSQ”), the DSQ having a priority level, allocating a quantum of bandwidth to the DSQ and transmitting the data packet as a function of the priority level and the quantum of bandwidth.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for performing near lossless-concatenated N-level constrained quantization Hadamard transform decoding are provided. Accordingly, the present invention provides a transform-based coding technique, where the coding loss introduced during repeated encoding and decoding is reduced to a substantially insignificant level. This is accomplished by employing a constrained quantization and inverse quantization operation in each level of encoding/decoding in the decoder. In this manner, the concatenation error between each level of a decoder is reduced to a substantially minimum level and the quantization error introduced during quantization operations, i.e., originally at the encoder and in each level of the decoder, is substantially reduced. Thus, the decoded bit stream that is output at the N-th level of the decoder is substantially the same as the original bit stream provided to the input of the encoder.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for bandwidth management. The method includes receiving a value representative of a target bandwidth from a remote device; storing a data packet in a data queue; associating a quantum of bandwidth to the data queue, wherein the quantum of the bandwidth is a function of at least the target bandwidth and time; and transmitting the data packet based on at least the quantum associated with the data queue. A method and apparatus for network congestion control are also provided.

Abstract: A method, comprising the steps of appending a data packet to a data stream queue (“DSQ”), the DSQ having a priority level, allocating a quantum of bandwidth to the DSQ and transmitting the data packet as a function of the priority level and the quantum of bandwidth.

Abstract: A technique for use in a block transform-based coding system of processing (e.g., encoding and/or decoding) one or more block transform coefficients associated with at least one block of visual data (e.g., an image and/or video sequence) comprises the following steps. First, one or more previously reconstructed block transform coefficients associated with the visual data are identified. Then, a context selection value is computed for use in processing a block transform coefficient associated with the at least one block, the context selection value being based on the one or more previously reconstructed block transform coefficients. The context selection value may be computed as a function of one or more values respectively associated with one or more previously reconstructed block transform coefficients in near proximity, with respect to a scanning order, to the block transform coefficient to be processed.

Abstract: A technique is provided for use in a video processing system for selecting between an inter-frame coding mode and an intra-frame coding mode when processing a current portion of a video sequence. The technique includes identifying previously reconstructed samples associated with the current portion from a current frame and a reference frame of the video sequence. Then, a selection is made whether to implement the inter-frame coding technique or the intra-frame coding technique on the current portion based on comparisons associated with the previously reconstructed samples. The technique may be implemented in both a video encoder and a video decoder. As a result, the encoder does not need to transmit coding mode-related overhead information to a corresponding decoder. By way of example, the invention may be implemented in a pixel-based coding system or a block transform-based coding system.

Abstract: A method of perceptually quantizing a block of an image or video sequence includes generating a non-perceptibility of distortion value. The non-perceptibility of distortion value is calculated from one or more masking values, e.g., complexity, brightness, movement, etc., which themselves are respectively calculated from previously reconstructed samples associated with the image or video sequence. The reconstructed samples form one or more causal templates that are used to calculate such masking effects and, thus, the non-perceptibility of distortion value. The perceptual quantization method then includes generating a quantization step size value which is a function of the non-perceptibility of distortion value. Since templates consisting only of previously reconstructed samples are used to derive the quantization step size value, the templates used at the encoder are also available at the decoder.

Abstract: A method of generating a motion vector associated with a current block of a current frame of a video sequence includes searching at least a section of a reference frame to identify previously reconstructed samples from the reference frame that best estimate motion associated with previously reconstructed samples from the current frame associated with the current block. The previously reconstructed samples may form sets of samples. Such sets may be in the form of respective templates. The method then includes computing a motion vector identifying the location of the set of previously reconstructed samples from the reference frame that best estimates the set of previously reconstructed samples from the current frame associated with the current block. It is to be appreciated such a motion estimation technique is performed in both a video encoder and video decoder so that motion vector data does not need to be transmitted from the encoder to the decoder.