Patent ID: 7715864

Claim:
An arrangement for providing a user terminal with access to an access point in a wireless telecommunication network, wherein a plurality of user terminals communicates with the access point utilizing a contention-based, multi-access uplink channel having a defined bandwidth, said arrangement comprising: an access point having a plurality of receive antennas for receiving simultaneous uplink transmissions from a number of user terminals, wherein the number of user terminals transmitting on a given slot is less than or equal to the plurality of receive antennas; power-control means for controlling transmit power of each of the user terminals to provide received signals of equal average power at the access point; means for instructing each of the user terminals to select its transmission data rate based on a noise level at the access point; and a receiver in the access point for receiving packets transmitted from the user terminals and for separately demodulating and decoding the packet received from each user terminal.