Patent ID: 7155249

Claim:
A method for controlling power on a reverse link of a wireless communication system, comprising: receiving from a remote terminal an initial transmission on the reverse link, the initial transmission including a reverse supplemental channel frame and a reverse pilot channel; measuring a first energy level of the reverse supplemental channel frame; measuring a second energy level of the reverse pilot channel; computing a ratio between the first energy level of the reverse supplemental channel frame and the second energy level of the reverse pilot channel; estimating a total energy level sufficient to permit correct decoding of the reverse supplemental channel frame, if the initial transmission of the reverse supplemental channel frame was not correctly decoded; computing a delta equal to a difference between the total energy level and the ratio; and transmitting the delta and a negative acknowledgement on a forward channel to the remote terminal to enable the remote terminal to transmit a sufficient amount of energy on a retransmission to compensate for an energy deficit on the initial transmission, wherein the negative acknowledgement is transmitted to the remote terminal only if the received initial transmission of the reverse supplemental channel frame has enough energy such that, if combined with an energy of the retransmission of the reverse supplemental channel frame, the combined energy would be sufficient to permit correct decoding of the reverse supplemental channel frame.