Patent ID: 8331278

Claim:
A method of assigning traffic channels, comprising: maintaining a counter indicating a number of access terminals that have been assigned unicast traffic channels for a multicast session, each of the assigned unicast traffic channels associated with a different individual access terminal identifier; receiving a request to register for the multicast session from an access terminal; determining whether to assign a unicast traffic channel to the access terminal, for the access terminal to provide feedback associated with the multicast session, based on the number of access terminals that have been assigned unicast traffic channels for the multicast session and/or for applications other than the multicast session; configuring a traffic channel assignment message to include an identifier for the multicast session, and to further include an assignment of the unicast traffic channel if the determining step determines to assign the unicast traffic channel to the access terminal; and sending the traffic channel assignment message to the access terminal including at least the multicast session identifier.