Channel quality feedback mechanism and method

A method for estimating forward link channel quality from a full channel quality value and a plurality of incremental channel quality values, comprising:

• decoding the full channel quality value over a plurality of slots;
• incrementally updating a channel state register with the plurality of incremental channel quality values, wherein each of the plurality of incremental channel quality values are received separately over each of the plurality of slots;
• resetting the channel state register with the full channel quality value when the full channel quality value is fully decoded;
• summing a portion of the plurality of incremental channel quality values;
• and
• adding the summed portion of the plurality of incremental channel quality values to the full channel quality value stored in the channel state register.

A method for estimating forward link channel quality from a full channel quality value and a plurality of incremental channel quality values, comprising:

• decoding the full channel quality value over a plurality of slots;
• incrementally updating a channel state register with the plurality of incremental channel quality values, wherein each of the plurality of incremental channel quality values are received separately over each of the plurality of slots;
• resetting the channel state register with the full channel quality value when the full channel quality value is fully decoded;
• summing the plurality of incremental channel quality values;
• and
• adding the summed plurality of incremental channel quality values to the full channel quality value stored in the channel state register.

A method for estimating forward link channel quality from a full channel quality value and a plurality of incremental channel quality values, comprising:

• decoding the full channel quality value over a plurality of slots;
• incrementally updating a channel state register with the plurality of incremental channel quality values, wherein each of the plurality of incremental channel quality values are received separately over each of the plurality of slots;
• and
• resetting the channel state register with the full channel quality value when the full channel quality value is fully decoded, wherein if the full channel quality value cannot be decoded, then using the plurality of incremental channel quality values as the forward link channel quality.