Patent ID: 7280501

Claim:
A method of allocating timeslots between uplink and downlink communication in a cellular communication system, the method comprising: for consecutive time division multiplex access, TDMA, frames comprising the timeslots, allocating a first selection of the timeslots to uplink communication in each of a plurality of cells and allocating a second selection of the timeslots to downlink communication in each of the plurality of cells; and, when the number of timeslots of each frame to be allocated to uplink communication rather than downlink is different for different cells, varying the allocation of at least some of the uplink and downlink timeslots in a random or pseudo-random sequence in each cell; and wherein the uplink and downlink timeslot allocations for the cells in the system are fixed in a first subset of timeslots in each frame and selected in different respective timeslot allocations than the first subset of timeslots in a second subset of timeslots of the consecutive TDMA frames; and communication services are divided between the first and second subsets of timeslots according to quality of service, QoS, with higher QoS services being allocated to the first subset of timeslots and lower QoS services being allocated to the second subset of timeslots.