Selective power control messaging

• US 7,269,389 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2002
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: ArrayComm LLC (Ygomi LLC)
• Inventors: Petrus, Paul, Sankaran, Sundar G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferris, Derrick W.
• Application Number:
  US10/189,709
• Publication Number:
  US 20040005905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,896 Days
• Field of Search: 455/69, 455/522, 370/328, 370/468, 370/470, 370/477
• US Class Current: 455/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/36 with a discrete range or set of values, e.g. step size, ramping or offsets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/58 Format of the TPC bits

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the invention, a method and apparatus are described to receive a signal, determine a quality of the received signal, and transmit a power control message, with a selected size, to request a modification in transmission power, the power control message being based at least in part on the quality of the received signal.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a signal;

determining a quality of the received signal; and

transmitting a power control message, with a selected size, to request a modification in transmission power, the power control message being based at least in part on the quality of the received signal;

wherein the power control message comprises a basic power control message and an optional extended power control message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality of the received signal is compared to a reference signal quality.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the quality of the received signal includes determining the signal to interference plus noise ratio of the received signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the basic power control message comprises one of a request to increase transmission power by a predetermined amount or a request to decrease transmission power by a predetermined amount.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the extended power control message comprises a request to increase or decrease transmission power by an amount specified by the extended power control message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the extended power control message is included if the basic power control message is not sufficient.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the extended power control message is included if the quality of the received signal is above a certain upper quality threshold or below a certain lower quality threshold.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the extended power control message is sent if signal quality remains above a certain upper quality threshold or below a certain lower quality threshold for a certain number of consecutive bursts of data.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining a time averaged signal quality for the received signal, wherein the extended power control message is included if the time averaged signal quality is above a certain upper quality threshold or below a certain lower quality threshold.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising suppressing transmission of additional extended power control messages for a certain period after an extended power control message is transmitted.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the period is a period that is sufficient to allow adjustment of the transmission power level in response to the transmitted extended power control message.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising suppressing transmission of additional extended power control messages if the quality of the received signal remains outside a specified range after the transmission of a specified number of extended power control messages.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising including the extended power control message in all power control requests for a data format comprising a large number of data bits.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising suppressing transmission of extended power control messages for all power control requests if the received signal comprises a small number of data bits.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the basic power control message comprises one bit of data.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the extended power control message comprises a plurality of bits of data.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the basic power control message is transmitted via a dedicated control channel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the dedicated control channel comprises a signal header.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the extended power control message is transmitted via a shared control channel.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the shared control channel comprises a data payload of a signal.

21. A method comprising:

transmitting a signal;

receiving a power control message, of a selected size, to request modification of -transmission power level, the power control message being based at least in part on the quality of the signal, the received power control message comprising a basic power control message and an optional extended power control message; and

adjusting transmission power based at least in part on the received power control message.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising ignoring the basic power control message if the extended power control message is received.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the basic power control message comprises one of a request to increase the transmission power level by a predetermined amount or a request to decrease the transmission power level by a predetermined amount.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the extended power control message comprises a request to increase or decrease the transmission power level by an amount specified by the extended power control message.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the basic power control message comprises one bit of data.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the extended power control message comprises a plurality of bits of data.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the basic power control message is received via a dedicated control channel.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the dedicated control channel comprises a signal header.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the extended power control message is received via a shared control channel.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the shared control channel is a data payload of a signal.

31. A radio unit comprising:

a receiver to receive a first signal, the radio signal determining a quality of the first signal; and

a transmitter to transmit a second signal, the second signal including a power control message of selectable size to request a modification in transmission power, the power control message being based at least in part on the quality of the first signal, the power control message comprising a basic power control message and an optional extended power control message.

32. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein determining a quality of the first set of signals includes comparing the quality of the first signal to a reference signal quality.

33. The radio unit of claim 32, wherein determining a quality of the first signal includes determining the signal to interference plus noise ratio of the first signal.

34. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the basic power control message comprises one of a request to increase transmission power by a predetermined amount or a request to decrease transmission power by a predetermined amount.

35. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the extended power control message comprises a request to increase or decrease transmission power by an amount specified by the extended power control message.

36. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the radio unit includes the extended power control message in the power control message if the basic power control message is not sufficient.

37. The radio unit of claim 36, wherein the radio unit includes the extended power control message in the power control message if the quality of the received signal is above a certain upper quality threshold or below a certain lower quality threshold.

38. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the basic power control message comprises one bit of data.

39. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the extended power control message comprises a plurality of bits of data.

40. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the radio unit transmits the basic power control message via a dedicated control channel.

41. The radio unit of claim 40, wherein the dedicated control channel comprises a signal header of the second signal.

42. The radio unit of claim 31, wherein the radio unit transmits the extended power control message via a shared control channel.

43. The radio unit of claim 42, wherein the shared control channel comprises a data payload of the second signal.

44. A radio unit comprising:

a transmitter to transmit a first signal; and

a receiver to receive a second signal, the second signal including a power control message of selectable size, the power control message being based at least in part on a quality of the first signal, the radio unit adjusting transmission power of the transmitter in response to the power control message;

wherein the received power control message comprises a basic power control message and an optional extended power control message.

45. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the radio unit ignores the basic power control message if the extended power control message is received.

46. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the basic power control message comprises one of a request to increase the transmission power level by a predetermined amount or a request to decrease the transmission power level by a predetermined amount.

47. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the extended power control message comprises a request to increase or decrease the transmission power level by an amount specified by the extended power control message.

48. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the basic power control message comprises one bit of data.

49. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the extended power control message comprises a plurality of bits of data.

50. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the radio unit receives the basic power control message via a dedicated control channel.

51. The radio unit of claim 50, wherein the dedicated control channel comprises a signal header of the second signal.

52. The radio unit of claim 44, wherein the radio unit receives the extended power control message via a shared control channel.

53. The radio unit of claim 52, wherein the shared control channel is a data payload of the second signal.