Patent ID: 8238281

Claim:
A method for use in a cellular wireless access system, in which system there is a first controlling node which controls transmissions to and from user terminals (UEs) within a certain area, and in which system UEs assume one of at least two states, the at least two states including a first non-listening state wherein a UE does not listen for data from its controlling node, and a second listening state, said method comprising: a UE alternating between said at least two states in dependence on whether or not data units which are transmitted between the UE and the controlling node are received entirely and correctly within an initially allocated resource for each data unit, as allocated by the controlling node; wherein, for transmissions from the controlling node to the UE, the UE: enters the non-listening state from the listening state if no data was received during a listening period; and extends its stay in the listening state by a predefined period of time if the UE transmits an ACK to the controlling node to ensure that the UE does not receive any retransmission from the controlling node during the time that a retransmission would have been performed if an ACK transmitted by the UE had been misread by the controlling node as a NACK.