User class provisioning for R-PDCH via a single common rate control sub-channel

A wireless communication system, comprising:

• a plurality of mobile stations, each including a TPR table and a TPR step size table, and each operative to transmit packet data on a reverse packet data channel (R-PDCH) at a rate dynamically determined by a reverse pilot channel (R-PICH) power and values in said TPR and TPR step size tables;
• and
• at least one base station issuing per-sector common rate control (CRC) commands in at least one sector to control the the R-PDCH data rate of one or more of the mobile stations;
• and
• said base station configured to effect different reverse link rate control command response behaviors between different ones of the mobile stations responding to the CRC commands by altering at least one of said TPR table and TPR step size table values.

A method of determining a data rate for transmitting data on a reverse traffic channel of a mobile station assigned to a user class, comprising:

• receiving values for at least one of a TPR step size table and TPR table, said values configured to the user class to which the mobile station is provisioned;
• receiving per-sector common rate control (CRC) commands from at least one sector in the active set;
• calculating a combined CRC command;
• in response to the combined CRC command;
• accessing a value in said TPR step size table and calculating a maximum TPR;
• in response to the calculated maximum TPR, accessing a value in said TPR table to obtain a maximum data rate, said data rate dependent on said user class configured values;
• and
• transmitting on said reverse traffic channel at said maximum data rate.