Patent ID: 8605702

Claim:
A method of transmitting a request signal to a base transceiver station (BTS) using a first reverse link channel, the method comprising: receiving, by a field unit, assignment information; wherein the assignment information is used to determine a value associated with an offset; applying a modulo function to at least the determined value to compute a series of periodic time intervals, each time interval including at least one time slot, in the first reverse link channel for transmitting the request signal; wherein the request signal indicates that the field unit is requesting to transmit packet data to the BTS; receiving a first power control message for the first reverse link channel and a second power control message for a second reverse link channel; determining a first power level for the first reverse link channel in response to the first power control message and a second power level for the second reverse link channel in response to the second power control message; and transmitting the request signal using the first reverse link channel at the first power level to the BTS in the computed time interval; wherein the first reverse link channel is transmitted when the field unit is not allocated a second reverse link channel to transmit packet data; wherein in response to the field unit being allocated the second reverse link channel, transmitting the second reverse link channel at the second power level.