Patent ID: 7206598

Claim:
A method of allocating power to remote station specific control channels, the method comprising: A) sorting a plurality of access terminals in an order of increasing required medium access control (MAC) channel power into a plurality of bins; B) if two or more access terminals have equal required MAC channel power, sorting the access terminals with equal required MAC channel power in an order of decreasing forward link signal to interference and noise ratio (FL_SINR); C) determining total available ARQ power based upon total MAC channel power, total power allocated to reverse power control (RPC) channels, and total power allocated to reverse activity bit (RAB) channels; D) comparing the total available ARQ power to total required ARQ power of the access terminals; and E) if the total available ARQ power is less than the total required ARQ power of the access terminals in response to step D), a) reducing power allocation to users in one of the bins with highest required ARQ power in a predetermined increment until a predetermined maximum reduction is reached; b) reducing power allocation to users in each of remaining ones of the bins in a decreasing order of required ARQ power in the predetermined increment until a predetermined maximum reduction is achieved; and c) if the total available ARQ power is less than the total required ARQ power, repeating steps a) and b) until the total available ARQ power is greater than or equal to the total required ARQ power.