Patent ID: 8140107

Claim:
A method for controlling transmission power between a wireless communication device (WCD) and a radio access network (RAN), wherein the WCD is served by a plurality of wireless coverage areas defined by the RAN, the method comprising: receiving into the RAN from the WCD a plurality of power adjustment commands; for each received power adjustment command, responsively identifying one or more wireless coverage areas in which to adjust transmission power, and adjusting the transmission power in each of the identified one or more wireless coverage areas, wherein identifying the one or more wireless coverage areas comprises: (a) making a determination of whether the RAN has received a threshold extent of power adjustment commands from the WCD; (b) if the determination is that the RAN has not received the threshold extent of power adjustment commands from the WCD, identifying as the one or more wireless coverage areas a first subset of the plurality of wireless coverage areas; and (c) if the determination is that the RAN has received the threshold extent of power adjustment commands from the WCD, identifying as the one or more wireless coverage areas a second subset of the plurality of wireless coverage areas, wherein the second subset is different than the first subset.