A wireless communications system including a network application server; and a base station to receive an expedited request packet from a subscriber unit by way of a radio frequency interface, attempt to reserve channel resources for a traffic channel to communicate with the subscriber unit, and notify the network application server of whether the channel resources have been reserved. The base station may notify the network application server by marking the expedited request packet received from the subscriber unit, and sending the marked expedited request packet to the network application server.