Alleviating Mobile Device Overload Conditions in a Mobile Communication System

A method of operating a user equipment in a mobile communications system, the method comprising:

• operating a receiver of the user equipment to receive one or more data blocks via a channel;
• detecting a user equipment overload condition;
• in response to the detected user equipment overload condition, sending a signal to a serving base station, wherein the signal is a request for the serving base station to reduce a downlink data throughput rate, and wherein the signal comprises a first field for indicating whether a downlink data throughput rate reduction is being requested, and a second field that indicates how the serving base station should respond when the downlink data throughput rate reduction is being requested.

An apparatus for operating a user equipment in a mobile communications system, the apparatus comprising:

• logic configured to operate a receiver of the user equipment to receive one or more data blocks via a channel;
• logic configured to detect a user equipment overload condition;
• logic configured to send a signal to a serving base station in response to the detected user equipment overload condition, wherein the signal is a request for the serving base station to reduce a downlink data throughput rate, and wherein the signal comprises a first field for indicating whether a downlink data throughput rate reduction is being requested, and a second field that indicates how the serving base station should respond when the downlink data throughput rate reduction is being requested.