Patent ID: 7130311

Claim:
A method applicable within a mobile communication system for adaptively allocating a downlink data rate to an access terminal to compensate for channel fading, said method comprising: selecting a downlink data rate in accordance with a determined signal-to-noise level, wherein said downlink data rate is associated with a specified signal-to-noise threshold value to achieve a specified packet error rate, wherein selecting the downlink data rate compnses: comparing said determined signal-to-noise level with a plurality of signal-to-noise threshold values, wherein each of said plurality of signal-to-noise threshold values is associated with a downlink data rate; and selecting a highest downlink data rate corresponding to two or more of said plurality of signal-to-noise threshold values that do not exceed said determined signal-to-noise level, wherein said mobile communication system includes selectable data rate control sets in which each of said plurality of signal-to-noise threshold values is associated with a corresponding downlink data rate for said specified packet error rate, and wherein selecting the highest downlink rate comprises: comparing the relative values of said two or more signal-to-noise threshold values; and selecting a data rate control set corresponding to the lowest among said two or more signal-to-noise threshold values; receiving a packet by the access terminal at said selected downlink data rate; responsive to successfully decoding said packet, decreasing the signal-to-noise threshold value specified for said selected downlink data rate; and responsive to unsuccessfully decoding said packet, increasing the signal-to-noise threshold value specified for said selected downlink data rate, said increasing the signal-to noise threshold value specified for said selected downlink data rate comprising: computing an increased signal-to-noise threshold value specified for said selected downlink data rate in accordance with the relation: T=T j +Δ local wherein T represents the increased signal-to-noise threshold value associated with the selected downlink data rate, T j represents the current signal-to-noise threshold value associated with the selected downlink data rate, and Δ local represents a local data rate control delta value.