Patent ID: 6856603

Claim:
A process for transmitting messages to a plurality of terminal devices in a telecommunications system having a control center that uses a protocol that is frame-structured in a time domain, comprising the steps of: causing the control center to transmit a message to the terminal devices in a first segment within a plurality of frames by performing the steps of: combining a group of the terminal devices into at least one terminal device group, a number of the at least one terminal device group being formed by a majority of the terminal devices, each of the terminal devices belonging to only one of the at least one terminal device group, preparing all of the terminal devices of one of the at least one terminal device group to receive messages from the control center during a single frame, all of the terminal devices of the one of the at least one terminal device group ignoring messages from the control center during a frame other than the single frame, and preparing the terminal devices of the remaining of the at least one terminal device group to receive messages during a frame other than the single frame, the terminal devices of the remaining of the at least one terminal device group ignoring messages from the control center during the single frame, and for each of the at least one terminal device group if there is a message to be transmitted, transmitting the message to be transmitted to all of the terminal devices of the one of the at least one terminal device group only during the single frame and transmitting the message to be transmitted to the terminal devices of the remaining of the at least one terminal device group only during the frame other than the single frame; and causing the control center to receive a message from the terminal devices in a second segment within the frames, the terminal devices ignoring the message transmitted by the control center during one of a single frame and successive frames.