A simple algorithm for adjusting cell-site transmitter power in CDMA cellular systems

Traditional downlink power control methods for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular systems allocate individual power levels to the different users of a given cell according to their relative needs, while assuming the amount of total power transmitted by each base to be constant. If this amount is not controlled, it is impossible to reduce unnecessary interference and, as a result, to achieve an optimal power control performance. In this paper, we address rather a simple convergent algorithm for adjusting the total power as well as allocating it for each user. The objective of this algorithm is to allocate the available power of each base to as many mobiles as possible that can enjoy sufficient transmission quality. In the appendix, we also provide an extended version of the algorithm, which relaxes an ideal assumption on soft handoff pertaining to existing works. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can be an alternative for CDMA downlink power control.