Patent ID: 7330446

Claim:
A method for controlling transmitter power of a signal transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver over a first communication channel in a code-division multiple-access wireless communication system, comprising: receiving the signal at the receiver; sending a power control command from the receiver to the transmitter over a second communication channel, the power control command being set to a specific value when a first quality metric of short-term fading of the first communication channel is lower than a first threshold wherein a power control command being set further comprises: setting the power control command to be a first value to instruct the transmitter to increase the transmitting power level and memorizing a second quality metric of a short-term fading of the first communication channel if the first quality metric of the received signal is near zero; and setting the power control command to be a second value to instruct the transmitter to decrease the transmitting power level so that the suspended transmission will be resumed if the first quality metric of the received signal is near zero and the second quality metric of the short-term fading of the first communication channel is higher than the memorized second quality metric; adjusting the transmitter power in accordance with the power control command that has a value other than the specific value; and suspending transmission of the signal, at the transmitter, when the power control command is equal to the specific value.