Patent ID: 7474642

Claim:
A method for controlling transmission of packet data and signaling messages on a shared high-speed packet data channel to improve reliability of the signaling messages, the method comprising: receiving a packet data for transmission on the shared high-speed packet data channel and storing the packet data in a packet data buffer; receiving a signaling message for transmission on the shared high-speed packet data channel and storing the signaling message in a signaling buffer; assigning a data priority to each packet data in the packet data buffer based on a scheduling algorithm; assigning a signaling message priority to each signaling message in the signaling buffer based on a scheduling algorithm; selecting one of the packet data or the signaling message as a next transmitted packet based on the assigned data or signal priority, respectively; receiving a channel condition signal from a mobile terminal; mapping the received channel condition signal to a highest possible data rate for the received channel condition signal to determine a message data rate; for a signaling message that is selected as the next transmitted packet, adjusting the message data rate by an offset factor to determine an adjusted data rate wherein the adjusted data rate is lower than the message data rate for the received channel condition signal; and transmitting the selected next transmitted packet at one of the message data rate or the adjusted data rate.