Communicating traffic over a wireless channel in a mobile communications system

A system for use in a mobile communications system, comprising:

• a wireless interface adapted to communicate over a wireless channel portion with a first mobile station;
• and
• a controller adapted to detect if the first mobile station has entered into a discontinuous transmission mode and to allocate the wireless channel portion to another mobile station when the first mobile station is in the discontinuous transmission mode,
• wherein the controller is adapted to detect a request from the first mobile station for reallocation of the channel portion back to the first mobile station,
• wherein the controller is adapted to receive the request during the same time the controller is receiving traffic from the other mobile station,
• wherein the controller comprises a joint detector to extract the request from a combined message including the request and the traffic from the other mobile station.

A system for use in a mobile communications system, comprising:

• a wireless interface adapted to communicate over a wireless channel portion with one of a first mobile station and a second mobile station;
• and
• a controller adapted to allocate the channel portion to the second mobile station when the first mobile station is silent and to receive a request from the first mobile station for allocation of the channel portion while concurrently receiving traffic from the second mobile station, wherein the received request overlaps the traffic from the second mobile station,
• wherein the controller comprises a detector to extract the request from a combined signal including the request and the traffic from the second mobile station.

An article comprising at least one storage medium containing instructions for communicating in a mobile communications network, the instructions when executed causing a system to:

• detect a first mobile station entering discontinuous transmission mode, the first mobile station assigned a channel portion to communicate traffic;
• multiplex traffic from a second mobile station onto the channel portion during a time period in which the first mobile station is in discontinuous transmission mode;
• receive a request from the first mobile station for a re-allocation of the channel portion;
• receive the request from the first mobile station that overlaps traffic from the second mobile station;
• and
• extract the request from a combined signal including the request and the traffic from the second mobile station.