Patent ID: 8804587

Claim:
A method of downlink transmit power control (TPC) in a radio base station of a multi-carrier wireless communication system, wherein the radio base station transmits on N downlink carriers and receives on M uplink carriers in communication with at least one user equipment, and wherein N and M are integers and the sum of N and M is equal to or larger than three, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a TPC command on at least one of the M uplink carriers from the at least one user equipment, the number of received TPC commands being equal to N, the receiving step comprising the sub steps of: receiving both a first and at least a second of said N TPC commands on a first uplink carrier while receiving each of the remaining TPC commands on separate subsequent uplink carriers from the at least one user equipment, when M is smaller than N; and receiving the N TPC commands on separate uplink carriers from the at least one user equipment, when M is larger than or equal to N; and adjusting a transmit power of a fractional downlink control channel (FDPCH) on the N downlink carriers based on the received at least one TPC command.