Discontinuous transmission/reception in a communications system

A method, comprising:

• defining at least one allocation rule for associating at least one sequence of sets of transmission resources with at least one communications device, the at least one communications device being configured to monitor allocation information in accordance with a set of allocation rules associated with the respective communications device;
• informing the at least one communications device of the at least one allocation rule;
• transmitting allocation information in accordance with the at least one allocation rule for indicating allocation of sets of transmission resources;
• and
• allocating transmission resources for the at least one communications device based at least on the at least one allocation rule;
• wherein said step of defining comprises defining at least one allocation rule which defines that the at least one communications device monitors the allocation information at least periodically using a first period;
• wherein said at least one allocation rule further defines that the at least one communications device monitors the allocation information periodically using a second period, which is shorter than the first period;
• wherein said at least one allocation rule further defines that the at least one communications device conditionally monitors the allocation information periodically using the second period;
• wherein said at least one allocation rule defines that the second period is used on one of the following conditions:
• the allocation information monitored using the first period does not indicate transmission resources allocated to the at least one communications device until the at least one communications device determines transmission resources allocated to at least one communications device,
• the allocation information monitored using the first period indicates the start of transmission resources allocated to the at least one communications device until the allocation information indicates no more transmission resources allocated to the at least one communications device, and
• information carried by the transmission resources associated with the first period is erroneously received by the at least one communications device wherein the second period is used for retransmissions until a positive acknowledgment is received.