Walsh mask test in CDMA cellular wireless communication systems with packet data service

1. A mobile station comprising:

a decoder circuit configured to retrieve mask information from a packet data control channel; and

a control circuit configured to (i) determine whether said mask information is valid and (ii) when said mask information is valid, update a current mask of said mobile station with said mask information, wherein said current mask is updated with said mask information when a predetermined confidence threshold is exceeded by a confidence variable generated in said mobile station for determining whether to update said current mask with said mask information.

2. The mobile station according to claim 1 , wherein said apparatus comprises a device selected from the group consisting of (i) a cellular radiotelephone, (ii) a Personal Communications System (PCS) terminal, (iii) a Personal Data Assistant (PDA) that may include a pager, Web browser, radiotelephone, Internet/intranet access, organizer, calendar, and a conventional laptop and/or palmtop receiver and (iv) any other device including a radiotelephone transceiver.

3. The mobile station according to claim 2 , wherein said Personal Communications System (PCS) terminal combines a cellular radiotelephone with one or more capabilities selected from the group consisting of data processing, facsimile, and data communications.

4. The mobile station according to claim 2 , wherein said Personal Data Assistant (PDA) comprises one or more devices selected from the group consisting of a pager, a Web browser, a radiotelephone, an Internet/intranet access, an organizer, a calendar, a conventional laptop receiver and a palmtop receiver.

5. The mobile station according to claim 1 , wherein said mask information comprises a Walsh space mask bitmap.

6. The mobile station according to claim 1 , wherein said decoder circuit is configured to decode a forward packet data channel (F-PDCH).

7. The mobile station according to claim 6 , wherein said validity of said mask information is determined based on a cyclic redundancy check of data decoded from said F-PDCH.

8. The mobile station according to claim 1 , wherein said control circuit is further configured to determine a consistency of a packet data control channel (PDCCH) service data unit (SDU).

9. An apparatus comprising:

means for retrieving mask information from a packet data control channel;

means for determining a validity of said mask information; and

means for updating a current mask of said apparatus with said mask information when said mask information is valid, wherein said current mask is updated with said mask information when a predetermined confidence threshold is exceeded by a confidence variable generated in mobile station for determining whether to update said current mask with said mask information.

10. A method for updating a Walsh mask in a mobile station of a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular communication system comprising the steps of:

retrieving mask information from a packet data control channel;

determining whether said mask information is valid; and

updating a current Walsh mask of said mobile station with said mask information when said mask information is valid, wherein said current mask is updated with said mask information when a predetermined confidence threshold is exceeded by a confidence variable generated in said mobile station for determining whether to update said current mask with said mask information.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein said mask information comprises a Walsh space mask bitmap.

12. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:

decoding a forward packet data channel (F-PDCH).

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said validity of said mask information is determined based on a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of data decoded from said F-PDCH.

14. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:

determining validity of said mask information based on a consistency of a packet data control channel (PDCCH) service data unit (SDU).

15. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:

configuring a transceiver circuit to operate in a mobile station of an IS2000 compliant code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular wireless communication system.

16. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising:

incrementing a confidence value associated with a mask under test in response to a valid CRC.

17. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising:

determining whether said confidence value exceeds a predetermined confidence threshold.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein said predetermine confidence threshold is greater than or equal to zero.