Patent ID: 7852810

Claim:
A method of forward-link power control carried out once per time interval over a series of successive time intervals, comprising: a base station providing service during a current time interval to a plurality of mobile stations on a carrier in a wireless coverage area according to a first forward-link frame-error-rate (FFER) target, wherein providing service according the first FFER target comprises: (i) increasing forward-link power to any mobile station in the plurality of mobile stations having a most recently determined FFER that exceeds the first FFER target, and (ii) decreasing forward-link power to any mobile station in the plurality of mobile stations having a most recently determined FFER that is lower than the first FFER target; the base station calculating an E c /I or value for the carrier in the wireless coverage area for the current time interval as a ratio of a pilot-channel power level (E c ) for the current time interval to an all-channel power level (I or ) for the current time interval; the base station automatically selecting a second FFER target for a next time interval based at least in part on the E c /I or value calculated by the base station for the current time interval, the next time interval being successive to the current time interval; and the base station providing service during the next time interval to the plurality of mobile stations on the carrier in the wireless coverage area according to the second FFER target, wherein providing service according to the second FFER target comprises: (i) increasing forward-link power to any mobile station in the plurality of mobile stations having a most recently determined FFER that exceeds the second FFER target, and (ii) decreasing forward-link power to any mobile station in the plurality of mobile stations having a most recently determined FFER that is lower than the second FFER target.