Transmitting signals on a channel used for traffic and access in a communications system

Embodiments of the present invention can be used to efficiently transmit access control and traffic information. In one embodiment, the invention includes generating an access control burst to be transmitted from a radio to a first remote radio, and generating a traffic burst to be transmitted from the radio to a second remote radio, the traffic burst being part of an existing logical connection between the radio and the second remote radio. Then the inventions can include transmitting a signal including the access control burst and the traffic burst in a timeslot on a carrier. This signal can be transmitted from a plurality of antenna elements using spatial processing.