Patent ID: 7808944

Claim:
A method of controlling the power of signals transmitted by a base station via a downlink (DL) channel, the method comprising: receiving at least one transmit power control (TPC) step size value notification signal including TPC step size value information that enables the base station to define a first TPC step size value and a second TPC step size value; determining whether or not discontinuous transmission (DTX) of an uplink (UL) channel that controls the power of the DL channel is employed; receiving via the UL channel a DL TPC command subsequent to the determining; and adjusting the power of the signals transmitted via the DL channel in response to the DL TPC command by: incrementing or decrementing the power by the first step size value on a condition that the determining indicates that DTX of the UL channel is employed; or incrementing or decrementing the power by the second step size value on a condition that the determining indicates that DTX of the UL channel is not employed, wherein it is determined that DTX of the UL channel is employed on a condition that the UL channel is not received for a given predetermined time frame.