Energy saving protocol for a communication system

In a radio communication system having at least one central station for allocating radio frequency communication channels among a plurality of subscriber units, a method for temporarily deactivating at least one of the plurality of subscriber units, comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining whether the at least one subscriber unit is non-functional due to a defect or operational fault;
• (b) deactivating non-essential circuits at the at least one subscriber unit for a time interval in response to a determination that the at least one subscriber is non-functional;
• (c) reactivating the non-essential circuits by the at least one subscriber unit periodically in order to determine if the fault condition is no longer present at the at least one subscriber unit;
• and,
• (d) monitoring the radio communication system if the fault condition is found to be no longer present in step (c) in order to determine if a message has been sent by the at least one central station.

In a radio communication system having at least one central station for allocating radio frequency communication channels among a plurality of subscriber units, a subscriber unit comprising:

• means for determining whether the subscriber unit is non-functional due to a defect or operational fault;
• means for deactivating non-essential circuits in the subscriber unit for a time interval in response to a determination that the subscriber is non-functional;
• means for reactivating the non-essential circuits periodically in order to determine if the fault condition is no longer present at the subscriber unit;
• and
• means for monitoring the radio communication system if the fault condition is found to be no longer present in order to determine if a message has been sent by the at least one central station.

A communication system having at least one central station for allocating communication channels among a plurality of subscriber units which can receive and transmit messages, the system capable of temporarily deactivating at least one of the plurality of subscriber units from the central station, comprising:

• means for examining past communication traffic activity of one or more subscriber units, the past communication traffic activity being determined by the amount of messages that have been received or transmitted by the one or more subscriber units as measured by the at least one central station;
• means for determining which of the plurality of subscriber units should be temporarily deactivated to provide a deactivation subset of one or more subscriber units, the deactivation determination being based on the past communication traffic activity of the one or more subscriber units;
• means for determining a time interval during which said deactivation subset should be deactivated;
• and,
• means for transmitting a code representing said time interval to said deactivation subset.