Power control methods and apparatus for use in a sectorized cell of an
OFDM communications system are described. Each sector of a cell uses the
same frequencies and transmission times and is synchronized with the
other sectors in the cell in terms of tone frequencies used at any given
time and symbol transmission times. Tones are allocated to channels in
each cell in the same manner so that each channel in a sector has a
corresponding channel in another sector. Power differences between
channels in different sectors are maintained to be within a pre-selected
power difference. Different channels in a cell are assigned different
power levels. Wireless terminals are assigned to channels based on
channel feedback information. Wireless terminals with poor channel
conditions are allocated to higher power channels than wireless terminals
with good channel conditions. Lower power channels often include more
tones per symbol time than high power channels.