Patent ID: 8416750

Claim:
In a wireless communication system that includes a Radio Access Network (RAN), a method of transmitting control messages to access terminals, the method being carried out by the RAN and comprising: on a radio frequency interface, using time-division multiplexing to transmit control packets and traffic packets to access terminals, each control packet being transmitted in its entirety over the course of a respective plurality of regularly-space control-channel time slots, and each traffic packet being transmitted in its entirety over the course of a respective multiplicity of regularly-space traffic-channel time slots, wherein control-channel time slots and traffic-channel time slots are interlaced; making a determination that a particular control packet to be scheduled for transmission is subject to a delay condition; in response to the determination, identifying a particular traffic packet for which a first total number of the respective multiplicity of regularly-spaced traffic-channel time slots have been allocated for transmission of the particular traffic packet, and for which at least a threshold number of the first total number of the respective multiplicity of regularly-spaced traffic-channel time slots allocated for transmission of the particular traffic packet remain untransmitted; and reallocating up to the threshold number of the remaining, untransmitted traffic-channel time slots of the particular traffic packet for use as control-channel time slots to transmit the particular control packet.