Patent ID: 8693407

Claim:
A method for communicating in a wireless communication system based on a persistent assignment of resources, comprising: receiving from a base station a multicast bitmap signal relating to a persistent assignment for multiple presently utilized traffic channels, the multicast bitmap signal comprising one or more bitmap bits corresponding to respective traffic channels, wherein the multicast bitmap signal further comprises one or more CRC bits; retrieving a bitmap bit in the bitmap signal corresponding to a presently utilized traffic channel; checking the CRC bits to determine whether the multicast bitmap signal has been correctly received; requesting re-transmission of the multicast bitmap signal upon a determination that the multicast bitmap signal has not been correctly received; and operating according to a default state upon a determination that the multicast bitmap signal has not been correctly received, wherein operating according to a default state comprises assuming that a bitmap bit in the multicast bitmap signal corresponding to a presently utilized traffic channel comprises a keep-alive indication.