Patent ID: 7936728

Claim:
A code division multiple access (CDMA) subscriber unit comprising: a wireless transceiver configured to transmit a digital signal over a CDMA reverse channel, and the wireless transceiver further configured to receive a digital signal over a CDMA forward channel, the CDMA forward channel having a plurality of subchannels with an assigned orthogonal code to each of the plurality of subchannels; a bandwidth manager configured to receive a time slot assignment over the CDMA forward channel, wherein the time slot assignment is used for uplink transmissions during an idle mode only; the wireless transceiver configured to transmit an idle mode signal over the CDMA reverse channel, the idle mode signal based on the time slot assignment on a condition that the wireless transceiver is powered on but not actively transmitting data, to maintain timing alignment; and the wireless transceiver is further configured to alternate between sending bits and not sending bits in time slots while in the idle mode.