Signaling methods for wireless communication systems

1. A method of transmitting signaling information from a user, comprising

appending user control information as a header to a data block, the contents of the user control information being unrelated to the contents of the data block, the user control information including at least one of buffer status of the user, reverse pilot channel transmit power and data related to soft handoff status of the user, the user control information being used to determine one of a transmission format, a scheduling priority and a transmission power;

encoding the data block and header; and

transmitting the encoded header and data block as a signaling message from the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said appending further includes:

first multiplexing said user control information to form a medium access control high speed (MAC-hs) header; and

second multiplexing said MAC-hs header with said data block.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user control information includes other control information selected from at least one or more of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) parameters, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) parameters and data rates allocated from one or more base stations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transmitting is performed autonomously.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transmitting is performed autonomously by the user at periodic or aperiodic intervals, and a period of said periodic intervals is known to one or more receiving base stations.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a scheduling grant message that includes an allocated data rate in response to said transmitted signaling message; and

transmitting information at the allocated data rate.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said information transmitted at the allocated data rate includes said user control information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said data block includes traffic data related to a data transfer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user control information includes one or more bits indicating the data related to soft handoff status of the user.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user control information includes the buffer status of the user and the data related to soft handoff status of the user.

11. A method of transmitting signaling information from a user, comprising:

multiplexing a header segment with a data block, said header segment containing multiplexed control information including at least one of buffer status of the user, reverse pilot channel transmit power and data related to soft handoff status of the user, the contents of the header being unrelated to the contents of the data block, the user control information being used to determine one of a transmission format, a scheduling priority and a transmission power;

encoding said data block with the header; and

transmitting the encoded header and data block, on one single data channel, as a signaling message from the user.

12. A method of scheduling a user for transmitting information, comprising:

receiving a transmitted signaling message from a user over one communication channel, the signaling message including user control information appended as a header to data, the contents of the user control information being unrelated to the contents of the data being received over the one communication channel, the user control information being used to determine one of a transmission format, a scheduling priority and a transmission power; and

transmitting a scheduling grant message that includes an allocated data rate in response to said received signaling message

wherein said user control information includes at least one of buffer status of the user, reverse pilot channel transmit power and data related to soft handoff status of the user.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

updating at least one of a stored buffer status, pilot channel information and soft handoff status of the user using the received control information.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said signaling message is received at periodic or aperiodic intervals, and a period of said periodic intervals is known to one or more receiving base stations.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising: estimating the reverse pilot channel transmit power of the user between said periodic or aperiodic intervals based on previous power control commands sent to the user.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving information at the allocated data rate; and

updating at least one of a stored buffer status, pilot channel information and soft handoff status of the user using the received control information.

17. A method of generating a signaling message for transmission by a user over one data channel in a communications system, comprising:

forming a signaling message to include a data block and user control information, the contents of the user control information being unrelated to the contents of the data block, the user control information being used to determine one of a transmission format, a scheduling priority and a transmission power; and

encoding the signaling message for transmission,

wherein said user control information includes at least one of buffer status of the user, reverse pilot channel transmit power and data related to soft handoff status of the user.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein said forming further includes:

first multiplexing said user control information to form a medium access control high speed (MAC-hs) control data header; and

second multiplexing said MAC-hs header data with data of said data block.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising: appending a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) segment to said data block and header of said signaling message, wherein said encoding adds a tail bits segment to said signaling message.

20. A method of generating a signaling message for transmission by a user over a single channel in a wireless communications system, comprising: appending a header segment to a data block, the contents of the header segment being unrelated to the contents of the data block, the signaling message including user control information being used to determine one of a transmission format, a scheduling priority and a transmission power, the header segment including at least one of buffer status of the user, reverse pilot channel transmit power and data related to soft handoff status of the user; and encoding said data block with said appended header segment for transmission.