Method and apparatus for controlling transmissions of a communications system

An apparatus comprising a resource allocation processor configured to process a signal to be transmitted from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity by selecting a transmit channel from at least two transmit channels associated with the transmitting entity, wherein each of the at least two transmit channels has an associated back-off factor and transmit power, and wherein the transmit power for each of the at least two transmit channels is based on the back-off factor, and wherein the selecting is based on the back-off factor of the selected transmit channel and on at least one attribute associated with the receiving entity and assigning the selected transmit channel to the receiving entity.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for selecting a transmit channel from at least two transmit channels associated with the transmitting entity, wherein each of the at least two transmit channels has an associated back-off factor and transmit power, and wherein the transmit power for each of the at least two transmit channels is based on the back-off factor for the transmit channel, and wherein the selecting is based on the back-off factor of the selected transmit channel and on at least one attribute associated with the receiving entity;
• and
• means for assigning the selected transmit channel to the receiving entity.

A computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodying a method for processing a signal to be transmitted from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity, the method comprising:

• selecting a transmit channel from at least two transmit channels associated with the transmitting entity, wherein each of the at least two transmit channels has an associated back-off factor and transmit power, and wherein the transmit power for each of the at least two transmit channels is based on the back-off factor for the transmit channel, and wherein the selecting is based on the back-off factor of the selected transmit channel and on at least one attribute associated with the receiving entity;
• and
• assigning the selected transmit channel to the receiving entity.

A method for transmitting a downlink signal, the method comprising:

• transmitting a first signal from a transmitting entity to a first receiving entity on a first time division multiplexed channel at a first transmit power level based on a first back-off factor;
• and
• transmitting a second signal from the transmitting entity to a second receiving entity on a second time division multiplexed channel at a second transmit power level based on a second back-off factor, wherein the first transmit power level is different from the second transmit power level.

An apparatus comprising:

• a resource allocation processor configured to provide a first back-off factor to a first transmitter and a second back-off factor to a second transmitter, wherein the first back-off factor is different from the second back-off factor;
• and
• a transmitter configured to transmit a first signal on a first time division multiplexed channel at a first transmit power level based on the first back-off factor and to transmit a second signal on a second time division multiplexed channel at a second transmit power level based on the second back-off factor, wherein the first transmit power level is different from the second transmit power level.