Patent ID: 7480516

Claim:
A method of forward link power control in a cellular wireless communication system including at least one base transceiver station and at least one mobile station, the base transceiver station including a finger processor formed by a RAKE receiver, the finger processor having fingers for producing a signal in response to a reverse data traffic from the mobile station, the base transceiver station tracking the mobile station with reference to a tracking threshold value determined by communication conditions, the base transceiver station and the mobile station being operably connected by a closed loop power control, the method comprising: decoding a forward link power control bit from a reverse power control sub-channel embedded on a reverse pilot channel in one power control group; setting a forward link power control bit validation threshold for determining whether the decoded forward link power control bit is valid, the forward link power control bit validation threshold being independent of the tracking threshold; detecting a value of a signal level produced by the fingers of the finger processor in one power control group in relation to the forward link power control bit; and comparing the value of the detected signal level to the set forward link power control bit validation threshold, to determine whether the decoded forward link power control bit in relation to one power control group is valid.