Patent ID: 8072921

Claim:
A method for decreasing the acquisition time for wireless packet communications, comprising the steps of: transmitting from a remote unit, a single multi-tone acquisition packet having a plurality of tones in the multi-tone acquisition packet with each tone having a different power level and each tone being at a different frequency relative to other tones in the multi-tone acquisition packet; receiving, at a base station, the multi-tone acquisition packet; comparing, at the base station, each of the plurality of tones from the received multi-tone acquisition packet to a threshold; selecting a tone from the plurality of tones meeting a desired selection criteria relating to the threshold; transmitting, responsive to the selected tone, a BS packet from the base station, with the BS packet containing power information derived from the power level of the selected tone; receiving, at the remote unit, the BS packet; setting, at the remote unit, responsive to the power information from the BS packet, a RU power level; and transmitting a plurality of packets with data from the remote unit, the plurality of packets with data being at the RU power level.