Patent ID: 8203947

Claim:
In a wireless communication system that includes a Radio Access Network (RAN), a method of transmitting control messages to access terminals, the method being carried out by the RAN and comprising: on a radio frequency interface, transmitting, sequentially in time, control packets to access terminals, the control packets including a first and a second control packet, and each control packet being subdivided and transmitted as control-channel data in a sequence of periodic control-channel time slots that are interlaced with traffic-channel time slots bearing traffic-channel data; making a determination that a delay condition exists in transmission of at least one control packet; and in response to the determination, interlacing transmission of at least (i) control-channel data in a first sequence of control-channel time slots associated with the first control packet and (ii) control-channel data in a second sequence of control-channel time slots associated with the second control packet, by interlacing control-channel time slots of the first sequence with control-channel time slots of the second sequence, wherein the first and second sequence of control-channel time slots is each ordered from a first time slot to a last time slot, and wherein interlacing control-channel time slots of the first sequence with control-channel time slots of the second sequence comprises: scheduling the first time slot of the second sequence immediately following the first time slot of the first sequence; and scheduling the last time slot of the second sequence no later than immediately following the last time slot of the first sequence.