WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING FRACTIONAL CHANNELS TO SUPPORT COMMUNICATION SERVICES THAT USE HIGHER ORDER MODULATION

摘要

A method and apparatus for enhancing communication services in an evolved global system for mobile communications (GSM)/enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) radio access network (GERAN) are disclosed. At least one full rate physical channel and/or half rate physical channel are provided to support communication services that do not require higher order modulation (HOM), and at least one fractional rate physical channel is provided to support the communication services that require HOM. The fractional rate channel occupies N timeslots for every M frames of a channel, whereby N/M is less than one half. The fractional rate channel may be used when communication services are provided on a channel that uses either 16 or 32 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in a dual transfer mode (DTM) session. The communications services include at least one of voice communication services, circuit switched (CS) services and supplementary services.