1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a method and system for selectively using a broadband forward for certain types of communication sessions.
2. Description of Related Art
There is an increased interest in providing wireless telecommunications systems that support high rate packet data communications. One such system is 1xEV-DO, which may use an air interface format as specified in the IS-856 standard. In 1xEV-DO systems, mobile stations communicate with a base transceiver station (BTS) via an air interface. The communications over the air interface are in the form of data packets, whether the underlying media being transferred is voice, data, or some other type. In accordance with the IS-856 standard, a 1xEV-DO sector may achieve a peak data rate of 2.4 Mbps on the forward link (from the BTS to the mobile station) and 153.6 kbps on the reverse link (from the mobile station to the BTS). Revision A of 1xEV-DO, which may use an air interface format as specified in the IS-856-A standard, can provide even higher peak data rates: 3.1 Mbps on the forward link and 1.8 Mbps on the reverse link. A version of the IS-856 standard is described in 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2, “cdma2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification,” 3GPP2 C.S0024, v2.0 (October 2000), and a version of the IS-856-A standard is described in 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2, “cdma2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification,” 3GPP2 C.S0024-A, v1.0 (March 2004), which documents are incorporated herein by reference.
Although these EV-DO approaches can provide higher data transfer rates than conventional (1xRTT) CDMA, there continues to be a need to provide additional bandwidth in wireless telecommunications networks.