METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALLOCATING COMMUNICATION RESOURCES TO SUPPORT PRIORITY COMMUNICATIONS IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

摘要

A communication system (100) employs a method (300) and apparatus (118) for allocating communication resources (e.g., 127-128) to support priority communications by communication units (112, 114-116) in the communication system (100). The communication system includes infrastructure equipment that allocates the communication resources to the communication units (112, 114-116). When the infrastructure equipment automatically determines (303) that a communication unit (e.g., 112) desires to initiate a priority call, the infrastructure equipment reserves (307) a communication resource (127) for the communication unit (112) at a base site (101) of the infrastructure equipment serving the communication unit (112). The serving base site (101) then allocates (309) the reserved communication resource (127) to the communication unit (112) upon the communication unit's initiation of the priority call.