ENHANCED SCHEDULING IN WIRELESS NETWORKS WITH RELAY FUNCTION

In cellular or other wireless networks, relay terminal devices can be introduced to support an indirect network connection for remote terminal devices in out-of-coverage (OoC) areas to thereby improve network coverage. Such relay terminal devices buffer upstream and downstream data from/to other terminal devices that are indirectly connected. However, a relay terminal device may have a limited memory allocation for buffering. This limitation has a high impact on the optimal resource scheduling performed by network access devices. It is therefore proposed to have relay terminal devices report information about their available or maximum buffer capacity to their respective network access devices to enable optimal resource scheduling by the access devices.