Patent ID: 7161952

Claim:
A wireless network comprising: a base station; and a terminal for exchanging user data and control data with the base station in dependence upon a plurality of persistency probabilities for assigning various transmissions capacities by the base station for at least one data packet, wherein the terminal is operable to transmit a first reservation request for a first time to the base station in dependence on a first persistency probability, the first reservation request being associated with a first data packet, further wherein the base station sends the first persistency probability periodically over a broadcast channel, wherein, only after a transmission of a rejection message sent by the base station over the broadcast channel corresponding to the first reservation request, the terminal is further operable to transmit the first reservation request for at least one additional time to the base station in dependence on a second persistency probability, wherein the rejection message is linked to a rejected preamble of the respective reservation request such that the second persistency probability is determined differently depending on the rejected preamble, and further wherein the base station sends the second persistency probability non-periodically, different from the first persistency probability, so as not to use a capacity of the broadcast channel unnecessarily, wherein, during a defined space of time after a complete transmission of the first data packet by the terminal to the base station, the terminal is further operable to transmit a second reservation request in dependence on a third persistency probability, the second reservation request being associated with a second data packet, further wherein the base station sends the third persistency probability periodically over the broadcast channel, and wherein, in response to the terminal neither receiving an assignment message nor the rejection message corresponding to the first reservation request from the base station after a step-by-step increase of a transmission power to a maximum value by the terminal over at least two transmissions of the first reservation request by the terminal to the base station, the terminal is further operable to transmit the first reservation request for at least one additional time to the base station in dependence of a fourth persistency probability, further wherein the base station sends the fourth persistency probability periodically over the broadcast channel.