Importance

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Abstract

The invention is a system for programming wireless subscriber terminals (WST's) using a broadcast channel of a wireless communication system. In accordance with the invention, a control program, for controlling operation of the WST, is updated using a series of messages transmitted from a base station over a broadcast control channel to one or more WST's simultaneously. Each message in the series contains a segment of the control program, and the series of messages is interleaved with other control data on the broadcast control channel in order to avoid interference with other call activities. When a WST identifies a message as containing a control program segment, the WST stores the segment. Once a complete control program has been received, control of the WST can be transferred to the new control program. Receipt of the broadcast transmission is subject to interruption for a variety of reasons, e.g., a WST is powered off, a WST moves outside the range of a base station, other radio signals or noise interfere with the broadcast signal, or a call is received by a WST, which then transfers to a voice channel. Thus the base station arbitrates the re-transmission of missing program segments by polling individual WST's using control channels, and retransmitting missing segments. The system also preferably provides non-volatile storage of a partial program within each WST so that the WST's need not receive an entire program in a single session.

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First Claim