Operation of a forward link acknowledgement channel for the reverse link data

An apparatus for wireless communication comprising:

• means for receiving a reverse link traffic channel data frame from a remote terminal;
• means for allowing absence of acknowledgement (ACK) signals on an acknowledgement channel of a best base station to indicate that quality of the received data frame is good;
• means for allowing absence of negative acknowledgement (NAK) signals on acknowledgement channels of secondary base stations to indicate that quality of the received data frame is bad;
• means for encoding the ACK signals and the NAK signals, and transmitting the encoded signals on the acknowledgement channels during a switching period.

A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for executing the following steps:

• receiving a reverse link traffic channel data frame from a remote terminal;
• allowing absence of acknowledgement (ACK) signals on an acknowledgement channel of a best base station to indicate that quality of the received data frame is good;
• allowing absence of negative acknowledgement (NAK) signals on acknowledgement channels of secondary base stations to indicate that quality of the received data frame is bad;
• encoding the ACK signals and the NAK signals, and transmitting the encoded signals on the acknowledgement channels during a switching period.

A base station of a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

• an RF front end configured to receive a reverse link traffic channel data frame from a remote terminal;
• and
• a controller configured to:
• allow absence of acknowledgement (ACK) signals on an acknowledgement channel to indicate that quality of the received data frame is good when the base station operates as a best base station;
• allow absence of negative acknowledgement (NAK) signals on acknowledgement channels to indicate that quality of the received data frame is bad when the base station operates as a secondary base station;
• and
• encode the ACK signals and the NAK signals;
• and
• a transmitter configured to transmit the encoded signals on the acknowledgement channels during a switching period.