Method for more efficient service request processing

Claim 1

In a trunking communication system that comprises a plurality of communication units, a limited number of communication resources that are transceived via a predetermined number of repeaters, and a communication resource allocator that allocates the limited number of communication resources among the plurality of communication units based upon service requests by the communication units, a method that allows the communication resource allocator to process an overloading of service requests, the method comprises the steps of: a) determining whether received service requests, which are either processed upon receipt or stored in a service request waiting queue will be processed within a predetermined period of time; b) when the communication resource allocator will not process all of the received service requests in the predetermined period of time, generating a global system busy signal that indicates that the communication resource allocator cannot individually process or acknowledge the received service requests within the predetermined period of time and will temporarily process only priority service requests; c) transmitting the global system busy signal to the plurality of communication units, wherein the plurality of communication units that receive and process the global system busy signal will only transmit priority service requests for the duration of the global system busy signal; and d) processing the received service requests and received priority service requests while not processing non priority service requests until processing time of the received service requests and the received priority service requests is at least a portion of the predetermined period of time.