Patent ID: 8144724

Claim:
A method for reducing access probe collisions in a high bandwidth wireless network over which push-to-talk (PTT) communications occur between a plurality of user devices, wherein access probes are transmitted on a reverse channel by the plurality of user devices to a base station in response to a paging message, comprising: receiving at one or more targeted user devices a first message periodically broadcasted from the base station, wherein the first message is broadcasted prior to the paging message and includes a maximum delay factor set to minimize a probability of collision between the access probes, the access probes transmitted by each of said one or more targeted user devices in response to receiving the paging message, wherein the paging message is sent by the base station in response to a call message indicating a request to initiate a PTT communication and the first message is periodically broadcasted in an overhead message comprising connection parameters to user devices within a coverage area of the base station; receiving at the one or more targeted user devices the paging message from the base station through a control channel or a paging channel; generating a single delay that is random, wherein the generated random single delay is between zero and the maximum delay factor; and at the end of the generated random single delay, transmitting the access probe over the reverse channel to the base station in response to the paging message.