Methods and apparatus for communicating and/or using transmission power information

摘要

A wireless terminal determines the transmission power used for its dedicated control channel at a point in time, and generates a power report indicating a ratio of a maximum wireless terminal transmit power to the transmit power of the dedicated control channel at the point in time. The power report provides a measure of available transmit power for wireless terminal use for other purposes, e.g., uplink traffic channels, after taking into consideration the transmit power used for the dedicated control channel. The point in time has a known time offset from the start of a communications segment in which the power report is transmitted. This allows the base station receiving dedicated control channel uplink signals from the wireless terminal to measure the received signals, receive and process the communicated power report, and correlate information to be used for accurate wireless terminal closed loop power control.

主权项

1. A method of operating a wireless terminal to provide transmission power information to a base station, the method comprising:
determining a power difference between a maximum transmit power of the wireless terminal and a transmit power estimate, the transmit power estimate corresponding to a transmission power level of a tone of a dedicated uplink channel at a point in time; generating a power report, the power report including the power difference; transmitting the power report, wherein the point in time is offset from a start of a communications segment in which the power report is transmitted; and repeating the determining, generating, and transmitting steps according to a report transmission schedule.