Patent ID: 7801105

Claim:
A method for allocating radio channel resources in a radio communications system having a network with a network node, where the network node and a mobile radio station communicate over a radio interface, comprising: the network node determining whether a data communication requested between the network and the mobile radio station is associated with a symmetric service or an asymmetric service; if the data communication is associated with a symmetric service, the network node establishing a symmetric data connection between the mobile radio station and the network for communicating data packets associated with the data communication; and the network node assigning substantially the same amount of radio channel resources to the symmetric connection for transporting data packets uplink from the mobile radio station to the network as for transporting data packets downlink from the network to the mobile radio station, wherein the symmetric data communication is a voice over IP (VoIP) communication and the radio communications system is a GPRS or EDGE type system, the radio channel resources are time slots, and the symmetric VoIP connection includes an uplink temporary block flow (TBF) and a downlink TBF, wherein for multiple mobile radio stations in a cell each associated with a VoIP data communication, the method further comprising: pairing VoIP data communications when assigning time slots, assigning a first VoIP data communication in a pair to a first time slot in which to transmit and a second time slot in which to receive, and assigning a second VoIP data communication in the pair to the first time slot in which to receive and the second time slot in which to transmit.