Patent ID: 7245601

Claim:
A method of operating a radio-based telecommunications system, wherein a common physical channel is used to transmit data on a downlink from a radio base station controlled by a radio network controller, to a mobile user equipment, wherein the data is transmitted in frame slots of a frame, the frame representing a combination of transport channels, and wherein each of the frame slots of the frame comprise a field for carrying data bits and a field for carrying indicator bits, wherein said indicator bits indicate the combination of said transport channels used in said frame, and indicates if no data is transmitted in said frame, wherein the method comprising: if data is transmitted in the frame, setting a transmit indicator power of the indicator bits based on a transmit data power of the data bits, and if no data is transmitted in the frame, setting the transmit indicator power of said indicator bits based on a virtual reference power, wherein the virtual reference power is calculated based on one of a first power value defined by a radio network element, and a second power value representing an average of transmit powers used to transmit data within at least two preceding frames.