Abstract:
A processor (108) for use in a fixed infrastructure (101) of a communication system (100) including a plurality of mobile stations (109, 110) each operable to request on a control channel by a random access procedure access to a shared communication resource (PDCH) of the system, the processor being operable to adjust dynamically, according to a detected demand as measured by a number of collisions occurring in a given period of time, a number of random access opportunities available to the mobile stations to make requests for access to the shared resource by the random access procedure. Also described is a system (100) incorporating the processor and a method of operation using the processor.
Abstract:
A wireless communication system (200) supporting packet data commanications in a timeslot-based operational procedure, the communication system comprising a network processor for transmitting communications to and/or receiving communications from one or more remote communication terminals (212, 214), wherein the network processor (236, 248).coinprises generation means for generating signalling,messages to be sent to target remote communication terminals and a scheduler (255) for scheduling sending of the signalling messages to.target remote communication terminals, characterised in that the scheduler (255) is operable to receive a plurality of signalling messages from the generation means and to control timing of sending of the signalling messages whereby one more of the timeslots of the operational procedure incorporate two or more of the signalling messages. The invention enables short signalling messages, for example end-of-data messages, to be sent to a number of remote communication units, for example mobile stations, by sending two or more of the messages within the same timeslots. This provides the advantage that the number of timeslots used for control signalling will decrease, thereby increasing the number of timeslots available for data payload transfer thereby improving the speed and thoughput of data playload. The system may be a TETRA system.