Patent ID: 7924778

Claim:
A wireless communication system, comprising: a network; a plurality of base transceiver stations (BTS) coupled to said network, wherein at least one of said base transceiver station (BTS) includes a processor and a memory that stores one or more software modules that control the processor to: receive a request to communicate with a mobile communication unit (MU) from said network; determine whether to establish a dedicated voice channel or a dedicated packet data channel with said mobile communication unit on the basis of said request wherein when said dedicated voice channel is established, the one or more software modules control the processor to receive voice information from said network, and send said voice information to said mobile communication unit (MU) by way of said dedicated voice channel, wherein the sent voice information is not encoded for joint detection, and wherein when said dedicated packet data channel is established, the one or more software modules control the processor to receive packet data from said network, encode said packet data for joint detection, and send said encoded packet data to said mobile communication unit (MU) by way of said dedicated packet data channel.