Traffic load based reverse link power allocation for cellular packet data systems

Power control typically constitutes the adaptation of transmit power to fading. It is argued that in packet data systems, there is another important aspect of power control, and that is the adaptation of the transmit power to the traffic load. The traffic load is defined as the number of users who wish to transmit data to the base station, and this traffic load changes with time. Adaptation of the reverse link transmit power to the traffic load is shown to improve the power-delay tradeoff. The optimal power control policy is computed using dynamic programming, and is compared with some simple suboptimal power control schemes.