METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES WITHIN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

摘要

Transmission of short messages within a communication system (100) occurs as follows: a base station (101) within a communication system (100) determines that a short message transmission to a remote unit (113) needs to take place. The base station (101) then determines if paging channel circuitry (107) is available for utilization. In particular, the base station (101) determines if paging channel circuitry (107) is loaded above a threshold. If the paging channel is loaded above a threshold and if the remote unit (113) is not utilizing a traffic channel, the base station (101) transmits the short message to the remote unit (113) utilizing the traffic channel. Additionally, the transmission to the remote unit (113) over the traffic channel is unannounced (i.e., a person utilizing the remote unit (113) will receive no indication that a traffic channel transmission is taking place).