A radio access network (RAN) includes a plurality of reverse-link channel elements for receiving signals and a plurality of forward-link channel elements for transmitting signals. The RAN may detect a fault condition in a signal transmitted by a mobile station and received through a reverse-link channel element or in a signal transmitted through a forward-link channel element and received by a mobile station, for example, based on a frame error rate in the received signal exceeding a threshold. The RAN may determine whether a radio frequency (RF) condition accounts for the fault condition. If the RF condition does not account for the fault condition, the RAN may allocate a second channel element such that the signal is received or transmitted through two different channel elements. If the second channel element improves the quality of the received signal, the BTS may discontinue use of the first channel element.