Patent ID: 7403499

Claim:
In a cellular radio system that transmits data from an IP-based network, through a base station controller (BSC) and any Base Station Transceiver (BTS) controlled by the BSC, to a plurality of active subscriber units, which are in radio communication with the BTS and in a data connection state, data transmission from the BTS to any active subscriber unit at any time being at one of a plurality of given transmission rates and at a defined power level, relative to a maximum total power transmittable by the corresponding BTS; a method for estimating a specific power of transmission from the BTS to each of the active subscriber units at any given time, the method comprising: defining in time a succession of observation windows; observing the data flowing into the BSC and addressed to each of the active subscribers and, for each subscriber, measuring an amount of such data flowing during each of a plurality of said observation windows, obtaining measured amounts; computing an average rate multiplier for each active subscriber; calculating using said measured amounts an estimated specific power for each of the subscribers.