Patent ID: 7668573

Claim:
A communications method, the method comprising: operating a wireless terminal, at different times, in each one of at least three different operational states, the three different operational states including a first state, a second state and a third state; wherein operating the wireless terminal in the first state includes using a first amount of a control communications resource used to send control signals between a base station and said wireless terminal; wherein operating the wireless terminal in the second state includes using a second amount of said control communications resource, said second amount of said control communications resource being less than said first amount, said second amount of said control communications resource including a dedicated unlink signaling channel and a shared downlink signaling channel, said shared downlink signal channel being used to communicate information relating to the allocation of data channel segments; and wherein operating the wireless terminal in the third state includes using a third amount of said control communications resource which is less than said first and second amounts.