Patent ID: 6950670

Claim:
A method for jointly adapting power and data transmission rate in a wireless network, comprising: setting a transmission rate for a mobile station; measuring a signal quality for the mobile station; adjusting, if necessary, a transmission power level towards a power control target associated with the transmission rate; adjusting, if necessary, the transmission rate for the mobile station based upon signal quality measured over a period of time; determining an average signal quality level over the period of time; incrementing a rate adaptation counter if the average signal quality is greater than or equal to a predetermined low threshold for the transmission rate; decrementing the rate adaptation counter if the average signal quality is less than the predetermined low threshold for the transmission rate; updating the transmission rate based upon the rate adaptation counter; updating the transmission rate for a next frame; and updating the next frame transmission to a minimum of the transmission rate plus a first predetermined amount and a maximum supported transmission rate based upon a comparison of a value in the rate adaptation counter and a predetermined up threshold.