Communication system with fast control traffic

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In one aspect of the present invention, a method and system for handing off communication between base stations in a mobile communication system is provided.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a mobile station communicates with a base station using a time division multiple access (TDMA) and/or time division duplex (TDD) technique.
In such an embodiment, a continuous sequence of time frames is generated, with each time frame comprising a plurality of time slots.
The base station can communicate with a plurality of user stations (some or all of which may be mobile stations), one in each time slot.
A mobile station desiring to hand off exchanges a plurality of control traffic messages with a second base station to establish communication in a different time slot with the second base station.
The mobile station then releases the communication channel with the first base station and requests, through the second base station, the transfer of the call to the second base station.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a mobile station transmits and/or receives a plurality of control traffic messages in multiple time slots of one or more time frames with the second (target) base station while in the process of handing off communication to the target base station, or performing other control traffic signaling.
The second base station provides an indication to the mobile station of the next available time slot for control traffic, and, if desired, can temporarily assign additional time slots to the mobile station during handoff, or other control traffic signaling.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method and system for establishing communication and handing off communication in a TDMA and/or TDD communication is provided.
In one embodiment, the base station transmits a general poll message in each available time slot to indicate availability of the time slot.
To establish communication in an available time slot, a user station responds to the general poll message with a general poll response