Patent ID: 8140072

Claim:
A method of operating a wireless communication system that serves mobile communication devices, the method comprising: in a first plurality of wireless access nodes, broadcasting a first paging zone identifier (ID), wherein the mobile communication devices report the first paging zone ID to a page control system when registering to use one of the first plurality of wireless access nodes; in a second plurality of wireless access nodes, broadcasting a second paging zone identifier (ID), wherein the mobile communication devices report the second paging zone ID to the page control system when registering to use one of the second plurality of wireless access nodes; in a third plurality of wireless access nodes, broadcasting multiple paging zone identifiers comprising the first paging zone ID and the second paging zone ID, wherein the mobile communication devices each evaluate an associated present paging zone ID against the multiple paging zone identifiers to determine if the associated present paging zone ID is included in the multiple paging zone identifiers, wherein ones of the mobile communication devices do not report to the to the page control system when registering to use one of the third plurality of wireless access nodes if the associated present paging zone ID is included in the multiple paging zone identifiers; and in the page control system, transferring a first set of pages to the first plurality of wireless access nodes and the third plurality of wireless access nodes for delivery to the mobile communication devices reporting the first paging zone ID, and transferring a second set of pages to the second plurality of wireless access nodes and the third plurality of wireless access nodes for delivery to the mobile devices reporting the second paging zone ID.