Patent ID: 8655291

Claim:
A method for controlling a power amplifier of a portable communication device, the method comprising: determining strength of a received radio-frequency (RF) signal; generating a receive reference signal representative of the strength of the received RF signal; comparing the receive reference signal with a threshold value; and generating, within the portable communication device, a control signal for the power amplifier with a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) based on the comparison, the DAC configured to generate a maximum DAC (MAXDAC) value as part of the control signal, the generating of the control signal being performed in a baseband subsystem, the control signal representative of an output power level of the power amplifier during a random access channel signal transmission, the control signal being configured so that the output power level is adjusted based on the comparison, the MAXDAC configured to allow generation of a power profile for the random access channel signal transmission.