Edge continued evolution, improved channel request method and system

Abstract

The present invention is a method and system adapted to facilitate, between a mobile station (MS) and network, an indication of support for reduced time transmission interval (RTTI). The MS can provide a base station system (BSS) with an indication of its multislot capability within an access burst sent at the start of a contention based access. In another aspect, the MS can indicate support for a new Immediate Assignment message as the conventional Immediate Assignment message can only assign single timeslots. The present invention enables the Radio Access Network (RAN) to assign RTTI and more than one timeslot for GPRS/EDGE temporary block flows (TBFs) during an Access Grant Channel (AGCH) assignment. The method of the present invention can be implemented in a computer program product or distributed software adapted to be loaded into at least one or a plurality of memory locations and executed by at least one or a plurality of respective computer processors.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method in a mobile station (MS) for reducing latency in a communications channel, the method comprising:
 accessing, by the MS, a base station subsystem (BSS);   indicating, by the MS to the BSS, the support thereof for a reduced time transmission interval (RTTI); and,   receiving, by the MS, an Immediate Assignment message sent by the BSS, wherein the Immediate Assignment message allocates to the MS more than one time slot (TS) on an uplink of the communications channel and one or more time slots on a downlink of the communications channel.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the indicating operation further comprises inserting an indication in a packet channel request sent from the MS to the BSS, wherein the indication indicates that the MS supports the RTTI. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the indicating operation further comprises inserting information in an access burst sent by the MS to the BSS at initial system access on a Random Access Channel (RACH), wherein the information indicates that the MS supports the RTTI. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the Immediate Assignment message is a Multislot Immediate Assignment message. 
     
     
         5 . A mobile station (MS) for reducing latency in a communications channel, the MS comprising:
 at least one computer processor that executes a computer program product or distributed software loaded into at least one memory location to implement following:   access, by the MS, a base station subsystem (BSS);   indicate, by the MS to the BSS, the support thereof for a reduced time transmission interval (RTTI); and,   receive, by the MS, an Immediate Assignment message sent by the BSS, wherein the Immediate Assignment message allocates to the MS more than one time slot (TS) on an uplink of the communications channel and one or more time slots on a downlink of the communications channel.   
     
     
         6 . The MS of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one computer processor that executes the computer program product or distributed software loaded into at least one memory location implements the indicate operation by inserting an indication in a packet channel request sent from the MS to the BSS, wherein the indication indicates that the MS supports the RTTI. 
     
     
         7 . The MS of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one computer processor that executes the computer program product or distributed software loaded into at least one memory location implements the indicate operation by inserting information in an access burst sent by the MS to the BSS at initial system access on a Random Access Channel (RACH), wherein the information indicates that the MS supports the RTTI. 
     
     
         8 . The MS of  claim 5 , wherein the Immediate Assignment message is a Multislot Immediate Assignment message.