Patent ID: 8144679

Claim:
A method of controlling a radio in a wireless device, the method comprising: controlling the radio during a plurality of awake periods and a plurality of sleep periods, the awake periods alternating in time with the sleep periods, such that the radio is always on during each of the awake periods, and the radio is off for at least some of the sleep periods; receiving, during one of the awake periods, signaling that defines a downlink transmission resource to communicate a packet or sub-packet, the transmission resource allocated during a portion of a sleep period; controlling the radio to be on during the portion of the sleep period; monitoring, during the portion of the sleep period, for signaling that defines an additional transmission resource to communicate an additional downlink packet or subpacket, and in the event such signaling is received, controlling the radio to be on for an additional portion of a sleep period; starting a timer that counts down the portion of the sleep period upon receiving signaling that defines the downlink transmission resource to transmit the additional downlink packet or sub-packet; controlling the radio to be on as long as the timer has not expired; during any portion of a sleep period that the mobile device is controlling the radio to be on, monitoring for signaling defining further downlink transmission resources to transmit further additional packets or sub-packets so long as the timer has not expired, and restarting the timer upon receiving such signaling or upon receiving such a further additional packet or sub-packet; and controlling the radio to be off at the expiry of the timer.