Patent ID: 7020102

Claim:
A method for reducing the power consumption of a mobile station connected to a packet-switched network, in which packet-switched network information is transmitted in the form of data frames, the method comprising: defining at least two different paging periods, and selecting a paging period for an idle mode in the mobile station on the basis of received signal strength; sending paging messages essentially at the intervals of said paging period to the mobile station to enable to synchronize the mobile station with the packet-switched network; setting the mobile station in the standby mode at least for the time of the reception of paging messages, and after the reception of the paging message; setting the mobile station, which is in the standby mode, to the idle mode, in which idle mode part of the functions of the mobile station are set in one of the following states: the power saving mode; switched off, wherein the method further comprises changing the mode of operation of the mobile station from the idle mode to the standby mode according to any of the following alternatives: at intervals during the paging period to receive information transmitted in the packet-switched network for maintaining synchronization to the packet-switched network; or at the end of the paging period for resynchronizing the mobile station to the packet-switched network.