Patent ID: 8908635

Claim:
A method for controlling an output uplink power level of a mobile station and controlling an output downlink power level of a target base station in a target cell of a mobile communications system, the method comprising: receiving, at a network node of said mobile communications system, a message indicating that a handover of said mobile station from an originating cell to said target cell, is completed; commanding, after reception of said message, said target base station to use an initial output downlink power level where said initial output downlink power level is determined responsive to one or more previous output downlink power levels used by the target base station to communicate to one or more other mobile stations after their handovers were completed between said originating cell and said target cell; and commanding, after reception of said message, said mobile station to use an initial output uplink power level where said initial output uplink power level is determined responsive to one or more previous output uplink power levels used by one or more other mobile stations to communicate to the target base station after their handovers were completed between said originating cell and said target cell, where said initial output downlink power level and said initial output uplink power level are further based on a timing advance value between the mobile station and the target base station, wherein the timing advance value is determined responsive to the distance between the mobile station and the target base station.