Patent ID: 7236789

Claim:
A method of assigning a physical channel rate to a mobile station in a wireless communication network including a plurality of sectors having full rate, half rate and quarter rate traffic channels, the method comprising: receiving the broadcast channel strength of a serving sector for the mobile station; determining a plurality of interfering sectors with respect to the serving sector for the mobile station, wherein each of the interfering sectors has a broadcast channel strength; selecting a sub-set of interfering sectors from among the plurality of interfering sectors, where the sub-set of interfering sectors is less than or equal to the plurality of interfering sectors; calculating an aggregate sum of corresponding signal strength measurements for the sub-set of interfering sectors, wherein the aggregate sum of corresponding signal strength measurements for the sub-set of interfering sectors is calculated using the following eguation: I agg = ∑ i = 1 k ⁢ I i where k is the sub-set of interfering sectors and I i is the broadcast channel strength level of the i th interfering sector; selecting a physical channel rate for the mobile station based on the aggregate sum of corresponding signal strength measurements for the sub-set of interfering sectors; and assigning a physical channel to the mobile station on a prioritized basis with respect to the selected physical channel rate.