A method for scheduling mobile station uplink transmissions by an active set base station (301, 303, 304) comprising steps of: receiving scheduling information from a mobile station, wherein the scheduling information comprises at least one of a queue status and a power status of the mobile station; determining, by the base station, an uplink channel scheduling assignment for the mobile station using at least one of the scheduling information and a base station interference metric and a link quality corresponding to the mobile station; transmitting, by the base station, the uplink channel scheduling assignment to the mobile station, wherein the uplink channel scheduling assignment comprises a maximum allowed power margin target based on the difference between a current channel power and a maximum power level supported by the mobile station; receiving, by the base station from the mobile station, a first transmission of data, which transmission of data is conveyed by the mobile station during the transmission interval and comprises transport format and resource-related information, TFRI, wherein the TFRI was selected by the mobile station based on the uplink channel scheduling assignment; decoding the first transmission of the data; when the first transmission of the data is not successfully decoded, receiving, by the base station, communications from the mobile station corresponding to at least one retransmission of the data; combining, by the base station, each of the at least one retransmission of the data with the previously received data to produce combined data until the first to occur of a successful decoding of the combined data or a flushing of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, H-ARQ, buffer; when one of the first transmission of data and the combined data is successfully decoded, conveying an acknowledgment to the mobile station; and in response to conveying the acknowledgment, flushing the H-ARQ buffer. receiving scheduling information from a mobile station, wherein the scheduling information comprises at least one of a queue status and a power status of the mobile station; determining, by the base station, an uplink channel scheduling assignment for the mobile station using at least one of the scheduling information and a base station interference metric and a link quality corresponding to the mobile station; transmitting, by the base station, the uplink channel scheduling assignment to the mobile station, wherein the uplink channel scheduling assignment comprises a maximum allowed power margin target based on the difference between a current channel power and a maximum power level supported by the mobile station; receiving, by the base station from the mobile station, a first transmission of data, which transmission of data is conveyed by the mobile station during the transmission interval and comprises transport format and resource-related information, TFRI, wherein the TFRI was selected by the mobile station based on the uplink channel scheduling assignment; decoding the first transmission of the data; when the first transmission of the data is not successfully decoded, receiving, by the base station, communications from the mobile station corresponding to at least one retransmission of the data; combining, by the base station, each of the at least one retransmission of the data with the previously received data to produce combined data until the first to occur of a successful decoding of the combined data or a flushing of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, H-ARQ, buffer; when one of the first transmission of data and the combined data is successfully decoded, conveying an acknowledgment to the mobile station; and in response to conveying the acknowledgment, flushing the H-ARQ buffer.