Patent ID: 8315633

Claim:
A method for power and rate control a wireless communication environment, comprising: evaluating, by a network controller, a virtual active set (VAS) of a user device, wherein the VAS comprises a list of sectors, other than a nominal sector serving the user device, capable of receiving and demodulating user device uplink transmissions; identifying if the user device causes uplink interference in the sectors listed in the VAS; providing the sectors listed in the VAS with channel and resource assignment information assigned to the user device by the nominal sector, and a scrambling code employed by the user device in the nominal sector, wherein the provided channel and resource assignment information and scrambling code allow the sectors listed in the VAS to receive and demodulate signals from the user device; and instructing the sectors listed in the VAS in which the user device causes uplink interference to transmit to the user device, using the scrambling code of the nominal sector, an uplink power control command requiring the user device to reduce power of uplink transmissions in the sector from which the command was initiated and a reverse activity command requiring the user device to reduce transmit data rate in the sector from which the command was initiated.