METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADMITTING A REQUEST FOR ALLOCATION OF WIRELESS CONNECTION RESOURCES IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

A method and apparatus for admitting requests for allocation of bandwidth in a communication system is provided herein. During operation, available bandwidth is logically divided for use among commercial users and public-safety users, where the commercial users utilize a predefined portion of the bandwidth and the public-safety users utilize a public-safety portion of the bandwidth. When a public-safety bearer request is made, and available bandwidth does not exist within the public safety portion of the bandwidth, some bandwidth unoccupied by commercial users from commercial portion can be used to admit the bearer request. When commercial bandwidth is occupied by commercial users, lower priority commercial users can be preempted so that commercial bandwidth can be used to handle the bearer request. In a similar manner, the public-safety portion of available bandwidth can temporarily be used by commercial users.