Mobile station supervision of the forward dedicated control channel when in the discontinuous transmission mode

An apparatus used to supervise a dedicated control channel transmitted operating in a discontinuous transmission (DTX) mode, comprising:

• transceiver means for transmitting and receiving transmissions;
• count means communicatively coupled to said transceiver means for counting a number of bad, good, and empty frames received in a transmission, wherein said count means is reset when a new transmission is received, and wherein said count means counts the number of bad frames received (COUNT1), the number of good frames received (COUNT2), and the number of empty frames received (COUNT3), and where said COUNTs may be incremented when:
• COUNT1 is incremented if a bad frame is received;
• COUNT2 is incremented if a good frame is received, and reset to zero if a bad frame is received;
• and
• COUNT3 is incremented if an empty frame is received, and reset to zero if a good frame is received;
• a fade timer, wherein said fade timer is set for a designated period if COUNT2 exceeds a third threshold (TH3);
• disabling/enabling means for disabling said transceiver, wherein said transceiver is enabled if COUNT2 exceeds a second threshold (TH2), and wherein said transceiver is disabled if said fade timer expires before COUNT1 is reset to zero, and wherein said transceiver is disabled if COUNT3 exceeds a fourth threshold (TH4);
• and
• terminating means for terminating a transmission, wherein said transmission is terminated if said fade timer expires before COUNT1 is reset to zero, or if COUNT3 exceeds a fifth threshold (TH5).