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.
