Patent ID: 8019373

Claim:
A method for controlling power at a base station in a communication system, the method comprising: transmitting, to a plurality of mobile stations, allocation information including connection identifiers of the plurality of mobile stations to which Channel Quality Information Channels (CQICHs) are allocated; and transmitting power control information corresponding to the plurality of mobile stations based on the allocation information, wherein the power control information comprises a power control bitmap having a plurality of power control commands for power control of the plurality of mobile stations, and an i-th power control command among the plurality of power control commands is a power adjustment to a mobile station to which an i-th CQICH among the CQICHs is allocated, wherein, when each power control command is 1 bit, a value ‘0’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of −0.5 dB and a value ‘1’ of the power control commands indicates a power change of +0.5 dB, wherein, when each power control command is 2 bits, a value ‘00’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of −0.5 dB, a value ‘01’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a no power change, a value ‘10’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of +0.5 dB, and a value ‘11’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of +1 dB, wherein, when each power control command is 3 bits, a value ‘000’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of −1.5 dB, a value ‘111’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of +2.0 dB, and a step size between ‘000’ and ‘111’ is 0.5 dB, and wherein, when each power control command is 4 bits, a value ‘0000’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of −3.5 dB, a value ‘1111’ of the plurality of power control commands indicates a power change of +4.0 dB, and a step size between ‘0000’ and ‘1111’ is 0.5 dB.