Apparatus and method for prioritized apportionment of transmission power in a multi-carrier terminal

[0010]Embodiments disclosed herein address the above stated needs by assigning precedence to a first carrier of a multi-carrier transmitter with a plurality of carriers served by a single power amplifier and allocating transmission power subject to a limit to one or more other carriers according to whether or not the channel served by the first carrier is in an active state. This ensures that the first carrier will be able to utilize what it needs of the total available transmission power, up to the limit, and that the next carrier has available for its needs the total available transmission power less the total power used by the first carrier. This ordered apportioning of power may be employed for a plurality of carriers that use the power amplifier, with the next carrier in priority having available for its needs the total available transmission power less the total power used by all of the carriers preceding it in priority.

However, limitations on space, manufacturing cost, power consumption and other factors dictate the need to share resources among the carriers, including power amplification circuitry.

If a multi-carrier terminal has a single power amplifier for simultaneous transmission of different types of carrier signals, the power amplifier may be subject to power constraints imposed by spectral emission requirements, by on-board battery capacity, and also by any priority among the carriers.

Because the 1x carrier has priority over the DO carrier, the only power limitations imposed on the 1x carrier other than the peak power of the power amplifier are battery capacity and spectrum emission control schemes to limit the transmit power of mobile stations.