Adaptive power control with an overall power control command
View Patent ↗Methods and computer-readable media are provided to determine which sector the mobile device will bias during soft handoff. Signals are received from multiple sectors, and for a first quantity of time slots of a frame, the signals are inspected to determine whether a quality threshold is met. Based on whether the quality threshold is met, each sector is assigned a power control command indicating that either a decrease or increase of output power is recommended when a subsequent signal is sent to the mobile device. For a second quantity of time slots, the overall power control command sent to the sectors corresponds to the power control command assigned to the sector that has communicated the highest quality signals for the first quantity of time slots of the frame.
1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method comprising:
receiving a plurality of signals from a first sector and a second sector;
for a first quantity of time slots that comprises at least a portion of a frame,
(1) inspecting each signal that has been received from the first sector and the second sector to determine whether each signal meets a quality threshold,
(2) based on whether the quality threshold is met, assigning a power control command to each of the first quantity of time slots for the first sector and the second sector, and
(3) communicating an overall power control command to the first sector and the second sector for each of the first quantity of time slots, wherein the overall power control command for a particular time slot is determined based on the assigned power control commands for the particular time slot;
determining which of the first sector or the second sector is transmitting higher quality signals for the first quantity of time slots based on the assigned power control commands; and
for each of a second quantity of time slots, communicating the overall power control command to the first sector and the second sector, wherein,
if the first sector is transmitting higher quality signals, the overall power control command communicated to the first sector and the second sector corresponds to the power control command assigned to the first sector for a corresponding time slot, and
if the second sector is transmitting higher quality signals, the overall power control command communicated to the first sector and the second sector for each of the second quantity of time slots corresponds to the power control command assigned to the second sector for the corresponding time slot.
2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a plurality of signals from a third sector;
inspecting each signal that has been received from the third sector within the quantity of time that comprises each of the first quantity of time slots to determine whether each signal meets the quality threshold; and
if the third sector is transmitting higher quality signals, the overall power control command communicated to the first sector, the second sector, and the third sector for each of the second quantity of time slots corresponds to the power control command assigned to the third sector for the corresponding time slot.
3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein inspecting each signal that has been received from the first sector and the second sector comprises comparing a signal quality of each signal to a target signal quality.
4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein each time slot is 1.25 milliseconds, and each frame is 20 milliseconds.
5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein a mobile device that is receiving the plurality of signals determines which of the first sector or the second sector is transmitting higher quality signals.
6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein the power control command assigned to each of the first quantity of time slots comprises either a “0” or a “1,” indicating that either a decrease in power or an increase in power, respectively, is requested.
7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein the overall power control command comprises either a “0” or a “1,” indicating to the first sector and the second sector that either a decrease in power or an increase in power, respectively, is requested on subsequent signals sent from the first sector and the second sector.
8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 7 , wherein an identical overall power control command is communicated to both the first sector and the second sector.
9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the overall power control command for a first time slot is “0” if at least one of the power control commands assigned to the first time slot for the first sector and the second sector is “0.”
10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the overall power control command for a first time slot is “1” only if all of the power control commands associated with the first time slot are “1.”