| 摘要 |
The present invention dynamically increases the capacity of a cellular radio communications system to meet temporary high traffic demands effectively and economically. The current traffic load at a particular base station cell area is determined (14). If the determined traffic load exceeds a threshold (16), a higher rate traffic channel over which a dual rate mobile station is communicating is handed over to a lower rate traffic channel available in that cell area (18). A list is maintained for those dual rate mobile stations currently assigned to higher rate traffic channels. Before making the handover from the higher rate traffic channel to the lower rate traffic channel, it is determined whether a handover is permitted. If so, the intra-cell handover is preferably made to a traffic channel which is currently already supporting another lower rate call. Otherwise, any available lower rate traffic channel is assigned. At call setup, if the current traffic load in the cell area exceeds the threshold, a call request involving a dual rate mobile station is assigned a lower rate traffic channel (20). If the traffic load in the cell area decreases, a call intitially set up or subsequently handed over to a lower rate channel because of high traffic load may optionally be handed over to a higher rate channel (17).
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