Patent ID: 8040803

Claim:
A method comprising: providing packet-data service to mobile stations, wherein providing the packet-data service to the mobile stations comprises (a) providing wireless service over an air interface from a base station to one or more mobile stations in a wireless coverage area and (b) providing a packet data transport service from the base station to a packet-data network; maintaining in data storage one or more packet-transport-metric thresholds; measuring each packet-transport metric in a set of one or more packet-transport metrics associated with the packet data transport service from the base station to the packet-data network; and conducting call-admission control in the wireless coverage area based at least in part on the one or more measured packet-transport metrics of the packet data transport service, wherein conducting the call-admission control comprises receiving a service request from a mobile station that is not currently receiving service in the wireless coverage area, and responsively: determining whether a most-recent measurement of each packet-transport metric in the set is less than that metric's corresponding threshold, granting the service request in response to determining that the most recent measurement of each packet-transport metric in the set is less than that metric's corresponding threshold; and denying the service request in response to determining that the most-recent measurement of at least one packet-transport metric in the set is not less than that metric's corresponding threshold.