Patent ID: 8520633

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, comprising: performing a plurality of ranging processes to establish a network connection over a wireless link; establishing a time interval for a wireless device timer at the wireless device upon establishing the network connection; establishing a time interval for an access node timer at the access node upon establishing the network connection; establishing a communication session over the wireless link and network connection; initiating the wireless device timer and the access node timer after the communication session is established, wherein the wireless device timer and the access node timer are indicative of re-entry procedure requirements; receiving a repeat request acknowledgement message during the communication session; and restarting the time interval for the wireless device timer and the time interval for the access node timer when the repeat request acknowledgement message is received during the communication session, wherein context information is stored at the wireless device and the access node when the time interval for the wireless device timer and the time interval for the access node timer are restarted.