Lucent Technologies Inc.

Gitesh P Shah

Chung-Zin Liu

Randall Joe Wilson

Kenneth Wayne Strom

Omar Salvador

Stephen Clifford Goss

Jeffrey Ross Light

Charles Varvaro

Mark Kevin Stockert

Apparatus and a method for establishing a cellular mobile call. If no radio traffic (voice or data) channels are available for a calling Mobile Station (MS), then a test is made to determine the expected wait time before a channel becomes available. If the expected wait time is less than a first threshold, then the call request is queued. If a channel does not become available before a second time threshold, then the caller is notified that the call has been queued and is expected to be established in a short time. A control message is sent to the MS to trigger an indication of the queued status to the user. The indication may be one or more tones, a data display, or the playing of a pre-recorded announcement. If the expected wait time is more than the first threshold, the caller is given the opportunity to be called back when a radio channel becomes available. Advantageously, the number of failed calls because of unavailable traffic channels is reduced, and the caller's annoyance level is reduced.

Queuing for radio channel availability

Apparatus and a method for establishing a cellular mobile call. If no radio traffic (voice or data) channels are available for a calling or called mobile station (MS), then a test is made to determine the expected wait time before a channel becomes available. If the expected wait time is less than a first threshold, then the call or the call request is queued. If a channel for an incoming call to an MS does not become available before a second time threshold, then the caller is notified by an announcement that the call has been queued and is expected to be established in a short time. If the caller of an incoming call to the MS does not disconnect, then the MSC waits for an available channel and establishes a connection to the MS over that available channel. For an outgoing call from an MS, a control message is sent to the MS to trigger an indication of the queued status to the user. The indication may be one or more tones, a data display, or the playing of a pre-recorded announcement. Advantageously, the number of calls blocked because of unavailable traffic channels is reduced. Advantageously, the same arrangement can be used to reduce blocking of calls because of unavailability of trunks for a link of a call connection.

Enhanced wireless radio channel utilization

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Naperville, IL, United States of America

Gitesh P Shah