Pilot power control and service coverage support in CDMA mobile systems

In CDMA mobile networks, variations in the transmit power level of the pilot signal may control the coverage area of the cells. When traffic load in a specific cell is sharply increasing, reducing the pilot power in that cell and, as a result, letting some mobiles near the cell boundary make an handoff to the neighbor cells and reallocating the reduced power to traffic channels will balance the load and keep adequate signal quality. However, too much decrease in pilot power may result in introducing a no-service area in the desired service coverage. The objective of this paper is to determine a maximum reduction in pilot power while supporting every mobile in the network with sufficient pilot strength