Described herein are systems and methods for discontinuous transmission on short-range packet-based radio links. As one option, during a communication session with a far-end system on a short-range packet-based radio link, an audio stream received on an audio line in is monitored for voice-based signals. Based on monitoring the audio stream for the voice-based signals, a voice activity estimation signal is generated. While the voice activity estimation signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, one or more voice packets are generated based on the audio stream, and transmitted to the far-end system at one or more times. Also, in response to determining that the voice activity estimation signal is below the predetermined threshold, one or more zero-payload packets are transmitted to the far-end system at one or more subsequent times.