Patent ID: 7180871

Claim:
A method for servicing a data communication in a cellular wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a request from a wireless subscriber unit to service the data communication; allocating radio resources to the wireless subscriber unit, wherein the radio resources include a fundamental channel and a supplemental channel, and wherein the supplemental channel has associated therewith a burst delay that is a delay period between a release of the supplemental channel (SCH) and a subsequent allocation of the SCH; determining a Retransmission Time Out (RTO) adjustment factor for an upper protocol layer servicing the wireless subscriber unit, wherein the RTO adjustment factor is based upon the burst delay of the supplemental channel; adjusting a RTO value of the upper protocol layer based upon the RTO adjustment factor to produce an adjusted RTO value; and servicing the data communication for the wireless subscriber unit using the adjusted RTO value to increase throughput at the upper protocol layer.