METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING SLOT RESERVATIONS FOR SLOTTED MESSAGES IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

摘要

Methods and apparatus for providing slot reservations for slotted messages ina wireless communication network are disclosed. In one illustrative example, amobile communication device transmits a slot reservation indication to thewireless network for reserving each nth paging slot assigned to the mobiledevice. At some point in time, a page message request for paging the mobiledevice is received within the wireless network. A page message for paging themobile device is refrained from being transmitted within a reserved pagingslot, but rather within a subsequent paging slot assigned to the mobile deviceafter a lapse of time associated with the reserved paging slot. During theslot reservation, the mobile device may perform a function such as a GPSlocation fix or network scanning operation. In an alternative approach, thewireless network may infer a reservation for the mobile device through use ofneighbor list message associated with it. For example, the wireless networkmay examine a neighbor list message referred to as a General Neighbor ListMessage sent on a control channel such as the Paging Channel or the BroadcastCommon Control Channel. Here, the wireless network may identify within themessage the presence of a frequency different from the current networkfrequency, or the presence of a wireless technology different from that of thecurrent network, and set the reservation for the mobile device in response.