FIELD: radio engineering, communication.
SUBSTANCE: in one aspect, systematic non-transmission, or 'blanking,' of minimal-rate frames transmitted in a communication system is provided. In an exemplary version, 1/8 rate frames in a cdma2000 voice communication system are systematically substituted with null-rate frames carrying zero traffic bits. Nevertheless, provisions are made for the transmission of certain frames designated as 'critical' by, for example, a vocoder. The receiver detects the presence of null rate and non-null rate transmissions and processes the received frames accordingly, including updating an outer loop power control only in response to non-null rate frames. Further techniques for changing the pilot transmission gating pattern to assist the receiver in detecting null rate frames are provided. In another aspect, early termination of a signal transmission over a wireless communication link is provided. In an exemplary version, a base station (BS) transmits power control groups (PCG) for a frame over a forward link (FL) to a mobile station (MS) until accurate reception of the frame is acknowledged by the MS over a reverse link (RL), possibly before all PCG of the frame are received over the FL. Possible ACK signalling methods are defined for channels associated with a cdma2000 wireless communication system. In another exemplary version, techniques for reverse link early termination are also provided.
EFFECT: increasing capacity in a wireless communication system.
33 cl, 29 dwg
