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A wireless communication mobile station (MS or UE) evaluates and categorizes an expected effectiveness of base stations (BSs or Node-Bs) in its Active Set for receiving uplink data, and instructs at least the less effective BSs to suppress some or all acknowledgment signals with respect to particula

A wireless communication mobile station (MS or UE) evaluates and categorizes an expected effectiveness of base stations (BSs or Node-Bs) in its Active Set for receiving uplink data, and instructs at least the less effective BSs to suppress some or all acknowledgment signals with respect to particular uplink data packets from the UE. A Target Select message is described for notifying the BSs of their Acknowledgment Target Select category, and a Target Select channel is described for conveying the Target Select message to all Active Set BSs so that they can suppress acknowledgment signaling with respect to corresponding data packets as appropriate for their Acknowledgment Target Select category.

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The invention claimed is: 1. A method of restricting acknowledgment signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations (BSs), which are active set BSs (ASBSs) of a user equipment entity (UE) in a wireless communication system, to the UE in response to uplink (UL) data packets transmitted from th

The invention claimed is: 1. A method of restricting acknowledgment signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations (BSs), which are active set BSs (ASBSs) of a user equipment entity (UE) in a wireless communication system, to the UE in response to uplink (UL) data packets transmitted from the UE to the ASBSs, comprising acts by the UE of: (a) monitoring channel conditions between the UE and each of the ASBSs; (b) evaluating an expected effectiveness of acknowledgment signaling from each of the ASBSs to the UE; (c) selecting, based on step (a), an ACK target status category for each of the ASBSs, including (i) selecting an "Off" ACK target status category for at least one ASBS from which acknowledgment signals to the UE should be temporarily suspended while transmission of at least one other signal to the UE is continued, and (ii) selecting a plurality of "On" ACK target status categories for a corresponding plurality of other ASBSs from which allowable acknowledgment signals corresponding to data packet reception success should be transmitted to the UE, including selecting an unrestricted "On" category for at least one ASBS wherein all acknowledgment signals recognized by the UE are deemed allowable for transmission from such ASBS to the UE, and selecting a restricted "On" category for at least one other ASBS wherein only a reduced subset of such recognized acknowledgment signals are deemed allowable for transmission to the UE by such other ASBS; and (d) transmitting one or more ACK Target Messages to the ASBSs that provide information sufficient for each ASBS to determine its ACK Target status category for purposes of responding to a corresponding data packet transmission from the UE to such ASBS. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the one or more ACK Target Message updates with a latency sufficiently low to permit each ASBS to transmit or suspend, according to the ACK Target status category indicated by the ACK target message, an acknowledgment signal reflecting reception success with respect to a corresponding data packet transmitted from the UE within about 20 ms of transmission of the ACK Target Message. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting the ACK Target Message in a frame substantially concurrently with the corresponding data packet. 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising conveying the ACK Target Message for all of the ASBSs within a single uplink (UL) data packet transmission time interval (TT1) via a single CDMA channel. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the ACK Target Message using tristate bits. 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising incorporating both ACK Target status category and uplink data grant target status for all ASBSs within the ACK Target Message. 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting an estimate of expected effectiveness of acknowledgment signaling for a particular BS of the Active Set based upon a recent history of data reception failures by the particular BS. 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising increasing an estimate of expected effectiveness of acknowledgment signaling for an ASBS based upon an increase in a filtered value that reflects one or more signal-to-noise ratios between the UE and such ASBS. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising representing both ACK target status category and uplink data grant target status together as a single tristate bit for each ASBS within the ACK Target Message; transmitting the ACK Target Message tristate bits for all of the ASBSs multiply redundantly within a frame of a single CDMA channel substantially concurrently with a transmission time interval (TTI) of an uplink (UL) data packet to which the ACK Target Message is intended to apply. 10. A method of operating a BS in a wireless communication system in coordination with at least one UE that performs in accordance with the method of claim 9 including performing, while the BS is an ASBS of the UE, steps of: (a) receiving a first ACK Target Message from the UE indicating that the BS is in an ACK Target status category of "Off" with respect to at least a first data packet transmission from the UE, and accordingly transmitting no acknowledgment signal to the UE in respect of the first data packet transmission; and (b) receiving a second ACK Target Message from the UE indicating that the BS is in an ACK Target status category of "On" with respect to at least a different second data packet transmission from the UE, and accordingly transmitting an allowed acknowledgment signal to the UE reflecting reception success or failure with respect to the second data packet transmission. 11. A method of operating a BS in a wireless communication system in coordination with at least one UE that performs in accordance with the method of claim 1 including performing, while the BS is an ASBS of the UE, steps of: (a) receiving a first ACK Target Message from the UE indicating that the BS is in an ACK Target status category of "Off" with respect to at least a first data packet transmission from the UE, and accordingly transmitting no acknowledgment signal to the UE in respect of the first data packet transmission; and (b) receiving a second ACK Target Message from the UE indicating that the BS is in an ACK Target status category of "On" with respect to at least a different second data packet transmission from the UE, and accordingly transmitting an allowed acknowledgment signal to the UE reflecting reception success or failure with respect to the second data packet transmission. 12. User Equipment apparatus (UE) configured to communicate bidirectionally with a plurality of BSs comprised in an Active Set of BSs for the UE by receiving downlink (DL) transmissions from and transmitting uplink (UL) data signals to a plurality of such Active Set BSs (ASBSs) in a wireless communication system, comprising: (a) a channel monitoring module configured to monitor channel conditions to each ASBS; (b) an acknowledgment signal reception module configured to receive acknowledgment signals that reflect success or failure of ASBSs to correctly receive corresponding data packets transmitted from the UE; (c) an acknowledgment source evaluation module configured to predict a suitability of acknowledgment signals to the UE from each of the ASBSs; (d) an ACK Target category assignment module configured to categorize two different ASBSs in two ACK Target categories, members of which are intended to send appropriate allowable acknowledgment signals reflecting reception success or failure for corresponding data packets transmitted by the UE, including one ASBS in an unrestricted ACK Target category for which allowable acknowledgment signals are an unrestricted set of system acknowledgment signals, and a second ASBS in a restricted ACK Target category for which allowable acknowledgment signals do not include negative acknowledgments, and to categorize at least one different ASBS as not an ACK Target ASBS that is intended to suspend transmission of acknowledgment signals to the UE in respect of corresponding data packets transmitted by the UE; (e) a Target Select message preparation module configured to prepare one or more messages including information sufficient to indicate any changes in ACK Target status for all of the ASBSs; and (f)a transmission module configured to transmit the one or more Target Select messages to the ASBSs at an appropriate time to direct each of the ASBSs whether or not to suspend acknowledgment transmissions with respect to a particular data packet transmitted from the UE to the ASBSs. 13. The UE apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transmission module (f) is further configured to transmit the Target Select messages as one tristate Off/BPSK bit for each ASBS allowed by the communication system, each tristate bit repeated a multiplicity of times. 14. The UE apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transmission module (f) is configured to transmit each Target Select message substantially concurrently with a data packet to which the Target Select message corresponds. 15. A method of restricting acknowledgment signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations (BSs), which are active set BSs (ASBSs) of a user equipment entity (UE) in a wireless communication system, to the UE in response to uplink (UL) data packets transmitted from the UE to the ASBSs, comprising: (a) a step for monitoring channel conditions between the UE and each of the ASBSs; (b) a step for evaluating an expected effectiveness of acknowledgment signaling from each of the ASBSs to the UE; (c) a step for selecting, based on step (a), an ACK target status category for each of the ASBSs, including substeps of (i) selecting an "Off" ACK target status category for at least one ASBS from which acknowledgment signals to the UE should be temporarily suspended while transmission of at least one other signal to the UE is continued, and (ii) selecting a plurality of "On" ACK target status categories for a corresponding plurality of different ASBSs from which allowable acknowledgment signals corresponding to data packet reception success should be transmitted to the UE, including a first unrestricted ACK target status category for an ASBS for which allowable acknowledgment signals are an unrestricted set of system acknowledgment signals, and a restricted ACK target status category for which allowable acknowledgment signals do not include negative acknowledgments; and (d) a step for transmitting one or more ACK Target Messages to the ASBSs that provide information sufficient for each ASBS to determine its ACK Target status category for purposes of responding to a corresponding data packet transmission from the UE to such ASBS.