Method and apparatus for transport format selection in a mobile wireless device

A mobile wireless communication device comprising:

• an application processor, and
• a transceiver coupled to the application processor and connected to a wireless communication network by a first connection and a second connection, wherein the transceiver selects a transmission format by:
• estimating an uplink transmit power level for transmissions during a transmit time interval;
• when the estimated uplink transmit power level equals or exceeds a first threshold, selecting a first transmission format that specifies transmitting a non-zero amount of frames over the first connection and transmitting zero frames over the second connection during the transmit time interval;
• and
• when the estimated uplink transmit power level equals or exceeds a second threshold and falls below the first threshold, selecting a second transmission format that transmits a non-zero amount of frames over both the first connection and the second connection during the transmit time interval,
• wherein the first and second transmission formats are selected by the mobile wireless communication device from a set of transmission formats communicated to the mobile wireless communication device by the wireless communication network when establishing or when reconfiguring the first and second connections, and
• wherein the second transmission format specifies a least non-zero amount of frames for transmission over the second connection selected from the set of transmission formats communicated by the wireless communication network to the mobile wireless communication device.

A computer readable medium for storing non-transitory computer program code executable by a processor in a mobile wireless communication device for selecting a transmission format, wherein the executing of the computer program code causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

• when the mobile wireless communication device is connected to a wireless communication network through a first connection and a second connection simultaneously;
• estimating an uplink transmit power level;
• selecting a first transmission format that transmits frames over the first connection and does not transmit frames over the second connection during a transmit time interval when the estimated uplink transmit power level equals or exceeds a first threshold, wherein the first transmission format requires a least amount of transmit power during the transmit time interval selected from the set of transmission formats;
• and
• selecting a second transmission format that transmits frames over the first connection and over the second connection during the transmit time interval when the estimated uplink transmit power level equals or exceeds a second threshold and falls below the first threshold.