Patent ID: 7512089

Claim:
For use in a point-to-multipoint wireless network, a base station for transmitting downstream data packets in a downstream traffic channel to customer premises equipment (CPE) devices and receiving upstream data packets in an upstream traffic channel from said CPE devices, wherein said base station is capable of for each of a plurality of said CPE devices, establishing a plurality of associated queues; receiving a link management message from a first one of said plurality of CPE devices, the link management message requesting a change in bandwidth allocation for an identified queue associated with said first CPE device, wherein said link management message is associated with a wireless media access control (MAC) layer protocol; and in response to said link management message, re-allocating bandwidth from a first queue associated with said first CPE device to a second queue; wherein said base station allocates bandwidth to said second queue by transmitting a first downstream data packet, wherein said first downstream data packet comprises a Next Time Slot field capable of assigning a CPE device associated with said second queue to transmit an upstream data packet in said upstream traffic channel during a next time slot following receipt of said first downstream data packet; wherein said first downstream data packet comprises a payload of data directed to said first CPE device.