Patent ID: 7184417

Claim:
A method for providing wireless communication of digital signals, the digital signals being communicated between a plurality of wireless subscriber units and a base station over at least one radio frequency channel via radio signals using a modulation that requires synchronization over the radio channel between each of the plurality of wireless subscriber units and the base station, the digital signals also having a given nominal data rate, the method comprising the steps of: a) making available a plurality of subchannels within each radio channel, wherein a data rate of each subchannel is much less than the nominal data rate of the digital signals; b) allocating available subchannels only on an as-needed basis, with the number of subchannels allocated thereby changing during the duration of a given session; c) on a reverse link, providing a standby mode connection for subscriber units which are powered on, but not presently having traffic channels allocated, the standby mode connection sending a heartbeat signal from the subscriber unit to the base station, the heartbeat signal being sent from the subscriber unit to the base station at a data rate which is sufficiently fast enough to maintain bit synchronization on the reverse link; and d) during the standby mode, sending a link quality report message to the subscriber unit in response to the heartbeat signal, the link quality report message containing a link quality report that is used to control the transmit power level of the subscriber unit.