Patent ID: 6928063

Claim:
A method for a base site to provide a dispatch patch service to a communication unit in a CDMA communication system, the method comprising the steps of: encoding dispatch communication for a dispatch call using a first CDMA long-code mask; receiving a request to patch a dispatch target into the dispatch call from the communication unit, wherein, prior to the step of receiving, the dispatch call does not involve the dispatch target and the first CDMA long-code mask is used for encoding dispatch communication for the dispatch call; and transmitting a channel assignment to the dispatch target that indicates the first CDMA long-code mask; transmitting CDMA long-code mask update information to the communication unit; generating a second CDMA long-code mask using the first CDMA long-code mask and a dispatch identifier of the dispatch target; and encoding dispatch communication for the dispatch call using the second CDMA long-code mask.