Patent ID: 7453862

Claim:
A method of reselecting a reference channel, the method comprising: transmitting a composite channel on which a plurality of channels are multiplexed, wherein an error rate measurement is performed on received signals on a reference channel selected from the plurality of multiplexed channels for use in selectively controlling transmission of the composite channel; selecting a channel from the plurality of multiplexed channels as the reference channel initially used for error rate measurement; monitoring the reference channel based on a quantitative data content criteria to determine an ON state when the quantitative data content criteria is met and an OFF state when the quantitative data content criteria is not met; and selecting a different channel from the plurality of multiplexed channels as the reference channel when monitoring of the reference channel reflects an OFF state, wherein: the channels are transport channels (TrCHs) and the reference channel is a reference transport channel (RTrCH), each TrCH has a transport time interval (TTI) of a given size of which a largest TTI size is an integer multiple, the TrCHs are multiplexed on a coded composite transport channel (CCTrCH), a block error rate measurement is performed on the RTrCH, and monitoring of the RTrCH is performed at a time interval corresponding to the TTI size of the RTrCH; the TrCHs each have a block error rate (BLER) requirement and a TrCH having a least restrictive BLER requirement is selected as the RTrCH initially used for error rate measurement; N number of TrCHs multiplexed onto the CCTrCHT; the TrCHs are assigned a preference level for selection, first through N th , the first preference level being highest; the preference level is based first on the BLER requirement and then on TTI size, such that the first TrCH has a least restrictive BLER requirement and a smallest TTI size among TrCHs having the same BLER requirement; the N th TrCH has a most restrictive BLER requirement and a largest TTI size among TrCHs having the same BLER requirement; and the first TrCH is selected as the RTrCH initially used for error rate measurement.