Patent ID: 8611915

Claim:
A method for providing control of communications among a plurality of wireless communication devices within a wireless communication system employing separate signaling and traffic channels so as to conserve resources of an uplink portion of the signaling channel as a function of base station indicated loading, the method comprising: operating each of the plurality of wireless communication devices to: receive a load indication at the wireless communication device broadcast from a serving base station, wherein the load indication indicates a load level of an uplink portion of the signaling channel at the base station, compare, at the wireless communication device, the received load indication with an access privilege preconfigured at the wireless communication device, and respectively: first, and as a function of the comparison, determining whether to initiate cell reselection and roam to a neighbor cell or continue to receive service from the serving base station; and second, if the result of the first determination is to continue to receive service from the serving base station and as a function of the comparison, identify one or more un-initiated uplink portion of the signaling channel consuming applications to at least temporarily bar from initiating at the wireless communication device, and if the result of the first determination is to initiate cell reselection, initiating cell reselection; and if the result of the first determination is to continue to receive service from the serving base station, temporarily barring from initiation at least one of the one or more un-initiated uplink portion of the signaling channel consuming applications as a function of the second identification.