Patent ID: 8868415

Claim:
In an access terminal (AT) configured to engage in communication sessions via a wireless communication network, a method comprising: during silence intervals of a communication session in which the AT has determined it has no audio data to transmit, ceasing transmissions to the wireless communication network, except for transmitting silence frames at a silence-frame rate to an encoder-decoder in a network device in the wireless communication network, the silence frames containing parameters for generation of audio noise by the network device; making a determination that in response to an absence of transmissions from the AT for a duration at least as long as a threshold time interval, the encoder-decoder has ceased transmitting audio data to the AT; and in response to making the determination, increasing the silence-frame rate so as to reduce the duration of the absence of transmissions from the AT to be shorter than the threshold time interval, and correspondingly cause the encoder-decoder to begin transmitting audio data to the AT, wherein the silence-frame rate is variable within a range between a minimum rate and a maximum rate, the minimum rate being no greater than the maximum rate, and wherein increasing the silence-frame rate comprises: if the minimum rate is less than the maximum rate, increasing the minimum rate up to at most the maximum rate; and if the minimum rate equals the maximum rate, increasing both the minimum rate and the maximum rate, while keeping the minimum rate no greater than the maximum rate.