Patent ID: 7266103

Claim:
A method of controlling forward link traffic channel transmission power, P transmit , to a user terminal in a wireless communications system having a plurality of beams, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving from the user terminal an active pilot channel signal to noise ratio (SNR); (b) determining a baseline power level, P baseline , from the received active pilot channel SNR, wherein the determining step comprises calculating a power level offset, P o , according to P 0 =E bt /N t +10log (R/W)−E cp /N t , wherein E bt /N t is a desired forward link traffic channel SNR in decibels (dB),R is a forward link traffic channel data rate, W is a spreading bandwidth, and E cp /N t is the received active pilot channel SNR in dB and adding P o to a pilot channel transmit power level; (c) identifying a user terminal interference susceptibility; (d) determining a power margin,P margin from the identified interference susceptibility; (e) identifying a packet error rate (PER) associated with the user terminal; (f) determining a power level correction, P correction , based on the PER; and (g) setting P transmit based on P baseline , P margin , and P correction .