Method and system with adjusted power headroom reports for uplink resource allocation

A wireless communication device (WCD), comprising:

• a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting data to a wireless network;
• a receiver for wirelessly receiving data from said wireless network;
• a processor;
• data storage;
• instructions stored in said data storage and executable by said processor to cause said WCD to perform functions comprising:
• (a) determining a transmit power requirement for a first uplink resource allocation available to transmit first data to said wireless network;
• (b) determining a power headroom based on a difference between a maximum transmit power and said transmit power requirement;
• (c) determining an adjustment value;
• (d) adjusting said power headroom based on said adjustment value to obtain an adjusted power headroom;
• (e) transmitting, via said transmitter, a report of said adjusted power headroom to said wireless network;
• (f) receiving, via said receiver, a second uplink resource allocation from said wireless network in response to said report of said adjusted power headroom;
• and
• (g) using said second uplink resource allocation to transmit, via said transmitter, second data to said wireless network.

A method comprising:

• a wireless network serving a plurality of wireless communication devices (WCDs) in a wireless coverage area, said plurality of WCDs including one or more basic-priority WCDs and one or more high-priority WCDs;
• said wireless network detecting a trigger condition for said wireless coverage area;
• and
• in response to said trigger condition, said wireless network instructing said basic-priority WCDs to report adjusted power headrooms.