Allocation of bandwidth to calls in a wireless telecommunications system

A subscriber terminal for handling calls in a wireless telecommunications system, a number of items of telecommunications equipment being connectable to the subscriber terminal, and the subscriber terminal being arranged to pass call data between said items of telecommunications equipment and a central terminal connectable to said subscriber terminal via a wireless link, the wireless link being provided on a frequency channel with a predetermined maximum call data bandwidth for the transmission of said call data, the subscriber terminal comprising:

• a bandwidth manager for maintaining in a storage information about allocation of the predetermined maximum call data bandwidth amongst calls currently being handled by the subscriber terminal;
• a bandwidth allocator for allocating, with reference to the information in said storage, a call data bandwidth for a call, the bandwidth manager being arranged to use the call data bandwidth allocated by the bandwidth allocator to update the information in the storage;
• and
• a call manager, responsive to a request to establish a call, to employ the bandwidth allocator to determine the call data bandwidth to be allocated to that call, and to then communicate with the central terminal to establish a call over the wireless link having the allocated call data bandwidth.

A method of managing calls between a central terminal and a subscriber terminal of a wireless telecommunications system, a number of items of telecommunications equipment being connectable to the subscriber terminal, and the subscriber terminal being arranged to pass call data between said items of telecommunications equipment and the central terminal via a wireless link, the wireless link being provided on a frequency channel with a predetermined maximum call data bandwidth for the transmission of said call data, the method comprising the steps of:

• maintaining information about allocation of the predetermined maximum call data bandwidth amongst calls currently being handled on the frequency channel;
• responsive to a request to establish a call, allocating, with reference to the information maintained at said maintaining step, a call data bandwidth for the call;
• using the call data bandwidth allocated at said allocating step to update the information in a storage;
• and
• establishing a call over the wireless link between the central terminal and the subscriber terminal having the allocated call data bandwidth.