Patent ID: 7161916

Claim:
In a wireless communication system configured to retransmit pending data until the data is acknowledged or until a maximum number of retransmissions are made, a method comprising: determining probability values associated with numbers of attempted transmissions of data; for each of a plurality of pending data transmissions, determining a number of times transmission of the data transmission has been attempted on a secondary channel in one or more preceding frames, determining a probability associated with the number of times the data transmission has been attempted, allocating power for the data transmission on the secondary channel in a succeeding frame based upon the probability associated with the number of times the data transmission has been attempted, allocating power for data transmissions on a primary channel; and selecting a data rate for data transmissions on the primary channel, wherein selecting the data rate for transmission of data on the primary channel comprises: selecting a highest supported data rate that is no greater than a maximum data rate specified by a base station; and selecting a data rate based on a maximum power level without adjustment for allocating power for the secondary channel and then recomputing the data rate for transmission of data on the primary channel based on the maximum power level minus the power allocated for the secondary channel.