Base station signals to switch mobile terminals out of a power saving mode to ensure that its own power budget is not exceeded

摘要

If a cell (10 in fig.1) is supporting the maximum number of calls for the capacity of the cell it is essential that the performance of mobile terminal receivers (30-40, fig.1) is high to minimise interference. However, if the system is not fully loaded, mobile terminals may operate with degraded receiver performance, interference still remaining low. In this system if the base station (20) is not operating at its overall power limit, it signals to individual mobile terminals that they may operate at a lower receiver performance and save their own battery power. This requires an increase in the power transmitted by the base station to those mobile terminals. Once, however, the base station reaches its power 'budget' (for example by additional mobile terminals entering the cell), the base station may require terminals in power saving mode to return to operate at full power.