Patent ID: 8059591

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a wireless coverage area having a plurality of traffic channels, a supplemental channel (SCH), an SCH queue, an SCH-burst-duration parameter initially set to a first burst-duration value, an RF threshold, a queue threshold, and a traffic-channel threshold, wherein the SCH-burst-duration parameter used for all mobile stations in the coverage area (1) reflects a maximum amount of time during which data could be transmitted during a single burst of the SCH and (2) corresponds to how much time lapses between the respective starts of successive bursts of the SCH; computing an E c /I or ratio for the wireless coverage area, and making a first determination as to whether the computed E c /I or ratio is greater than the RF threshold; making a second determination as to whether a number of mobile stations in the SCH queue is less than the queue threshold; making a third determination as to whether a number of mobile stations having a traffic channel in the wireless coverage area is less than the traffic-channel threshold; determining a second burst-duration value, the second burst-duration value being different from the first burst-duration value, based at least in part on the first determination, at least in part on the second determination, and at least in part on the third determination; and operating with the SCH-burst-duration parameter set to the second burst-duration value.