Method and apparatus for controlling uplink transmissions of a wireless communication system

A method for controlling transmissions on an uplink in a communication system, comprising:

• defining a reuse pattern for the communication system, wherein the reuse pattern includes a plurality of cells;
• determining one or more characteristics for each cell in the communication system;
• partitioning available system resources into a plurality of channels;
• defining a plurality of back-off factors for the plurality of channels for each cell in the communication system based at least in part on the determined one or more characteristics, wherein each channel of each cell is associated with a respective back-off factor that identifies a reduction from peak transmit power level, and wherein each back-off factor ranges from zero to one;
• and
• assigning the plurality of channels in each cell to terminals within the cell for data transmission at power levels determined based at least in part on the back-off factors associated with the assigned channels, wherein the back-off factors for each cell in the reuse pattern are approximately staggered from those of neighboring cells in the reuse pattern.