Patent ID: 8817695

Claim:
In a wireless communication system in which a radio access network (RAN) serves an access terminal over an air interface, wherein the air interface defines a forward-link having timeslots that carry data packets from the RAN to the access terminal, and the air interface defines a reverse-link that carries hybrid-ARQ messaging from the access terminal to the RAN, the hybrid-ARQ messaging including, for forward-link data packet transmission attempts, negative acknowledgements (NAKs) and positive acknowledgements (ACKs), a method comprising: the RAN making a determination that utilization of the timeslots on the forward-link is threshold high, wherein making the determination that utilization of the timeslots on the forward-link is threshold high comprises detecting utilization of a threshold high extent of timeslots on the forward-link; and responsive to at least the determination, the RAN causing the access terminal to transition from (i) a first mode in which the access terminal transmits the NAKs and ACKs at the same power level to (ii) a second mode in which the access terminal transmits the ACKs at a higher power level than the NAKs.