Patent ID: 8811279

Claim:
A method operating a wireless communication system to control transmission of overhead messages, the method comprising: receiving and processing call information to identify a rate of call originations; processing the rate of call originations to determine whether the rate of call originations exceeds a threshold; determining a first priority scheme that identifies a first priority for transmitting the plurality of overhead messages based on a plurality of message types; transmitting the overhead messages using the first priority scheme if the rate of call originations is below the threshold; determining a second priority scheme that identifies a second priority for transmitting the plurality of overhead messages based on the plurality of message types if the rate of call originations exceeds the threshold, wherein the second priority scheme is different from the first priority scheme; transmitting the overhead messages using the second priority scheme if the rate of call originations exceeds the threshold; wherein the second priority scheme indicates a higher priority for a first type of message of the plurality of message types and a lower priority for a second type of message of the plurality of message types than the first priority scheme; and wherein the second priority scheme indicates that a plurality of messages of the first type of message be transmitted in the same control channel cycle.