Patent ID: 8467407

Claim:
A method for obtaining upstream (UL) transmission bandwidth for a customer premises equipment (CPE) communicating with a base station controller (BSC) over a link shared with other CPEs, the method comprising: contending with other CPEs to transmit a first type bandwith request to the BSC in a contention slot and awaiting receipt of a bandwidth grant from the BSC; transmitting upstream data to the BSC within a data slot specified by the bandwidth grant received from the BSC in response to successful transmission of the first type bandwidth request; transmitting a second type bandwidth request within the data slot specified by the bandwidth grant using piggybacking for requesting a subsequent data slot for accommodating UL transmission of data in a current data backlog; and transmitting from the CPE a third type bandwidth request in a bandwidth request opportunity for enabling the CPE to transmit new data subsequently received by the CPE within a first period of time and operating the CPE in an idle state if no new data arrives at the CPE within the first period of time.