referring to fig1 in block 100 , the subscriber station receives the pilot signal and reverse link power control commands from all of the base stations in its active set . the subscriber station uses the received pilot signal for coherent demodulation of the forward link traffic signal and for determining the strength of the signal from each base station . in the exemplary embodiment , the power control commands from each base station direct the subscriber station to increase or decrease its transmission energy . in the exemplary embodiment , the subscriber station only increases its transmission energy if no base stations in the active set request the subscriber station to decrease its transmission energy . in the exemplary embodiment of the communication system described in the aforementioned u . s . patent application ser . no . 08 / 963 , 386 , the high speed traffic data is transmitted from only one base station . that is to say , the forward link traffic is not provided in soft handoff . this is a desirable constraint from the perspective of overall system capacity . in the exemplary , the subscriber station measure the signal energy of signals from each of the base stations in the active set of the subscriber station and sends a data request control ( drc ) signal indicating which base station is transmitting the strongest received signal . in addition , the drc signal indicates a data rate which the subscriber station selects based on strength of the received signal from the selected base station . in block 102 , the subscriber station stores the reverse link power control commands from each base station in memory . in an alternative embodiment , the subscriber station stores a statistic indicative of the power control commands received from each base station , such as the fraction of commands received that requested a decrease in transmission energy in a predetermined number of preceding frames or the number of discrepancies between the base station &# 39 ; s request and the response taken by the subscriber station . in block 104 , the subscriber station makes an initial selection of the base station to transmit forward link data to it . in the exemplary embodiment , the subscriber station measures the energy of a time multiplexed pilot signal from each base station and selects the base station with the highest chip energy to interference ( c / i ) when including all multipath components . in the exemplary embodiment , the subscriber station includes a rake receiver that separately demodulates the multipath components of signals from each base station . an exemplary embodiment of a rake receiver is described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 103 , 390 . in block 106 , the subscriber station determines whether the selected base station requires a handoff . that is to say , whether the selected base station is the same as the base station selected to transmit in the last frame interval . if the selected base station does require a handoff , then the process moves to block 108 . in block , 108 , the subscriber determines if the selected base station is receiving its reverse link transmissions . in the exemplary embodiment , the subscriber station makes this determination by looking at the history of reverse link power control commands transmitted by the selected base station . a sufficient number of power control commands requesting the subscriber station to decrease its transmission energy is indicative that the signal strength of its reverse link transmissions are being received by the selected base station . it will be understood that other methods of performing this analysis are equally applicable , for example the base stations could intermittently transmits a message indicating the average quality of the received reverse link signal . if the subscriber station determines that its reverse link signal is being reliably received by the selected base station , then the process moves to block 110 . in block 110 , the handoff is permitted . the subscriber station transmits a data rate control ( drc ) message indicative of the selected base station and the rate requested to transmit to the subscriber station . if the subscriber station determines that its reverse link signal is not being reliably received by the selected base station , then the process moves to block 112 . in block 112 , the handoff is inhibited . in the exemplary embodiment , the subscriber station selects an alternative base station for transmission of forward link traffic data which is reliably receiving its reverse link transmissions . the subscriber station transmits a drc message indicative of the alternative base station and the rate requested to transmit to the subscriber station . the rate requested is based on the strength of the received pilot signal from the alternative base station . back in block 106 , if a handoff is not necessary , then the process moves to block 114 . in block 114 , the subscriber station again determines whether the selected base station ( which is the base station previously selected ) is receiving its reverse link signal with sufficient energy . the determination as to whether the base station is reliably receiving the reverse link signal proceeds as described with respect to block 108 above . if the subscriber station determines that its reverse link signal is being received with sufficient energy by the selected base station , then the process moves to block 116 . in block 116 , the subscriber station transmits a message indicative of the selected base station and the rate requested to transmit to the subscriber station . if the subscriber station determines that its reverse link signal is not being reliably received by the selected base station , then the process moves to block 118 . in block 118 , a handoff is forced . the subscriber station selects an alternative base station for transmission of forward link traffic data , which is receiving its reverse link transmissions with sufficient energy . the subscriber station transmits a drc message indicative of the alternative base station and the rate requested to transmit to the subscriber station . the rate requested is based on the strength of the received pilot signal from the alternative base station . referring to the figures , fig2 represents the exemplary data communication system of the present invention which comprises multiple cells 200 a - 200 f . each cell 200 is serviced by a corresponding base station 202 or base station 204 . base stations 202 are base stations that are in active communication with subscriber station 206 and are said to make up the active set of subscriber station 206 . base stations 204 are not in communication with subscriber station 206 but have signals with sufficient strength to be monitored by subscriber station 206 for addition to the active set if the strength of the received signals increases due to a change in the propagation path characteristics . base stations 204 are said to make up the candidate set of subscriber station 206 . in the exemplary embodiment , subscriber station 206 receives information from at most one base station 202 on the forward link at each time slot , but can be in communication with one or more base stations 202 on the reverse link , depending on whether the subscriber station 206 is in soft handoff . as shown by fig1 each base station 202 preferably transmits data to one subscriber station 206 at any given moment . subscriber stations 206 , especially those located near a cell boundary , can receive the pilot signals from multiple base stations 204 in the candidate set . if the pilot signal is above a predetermined threshold , subscriber station 206 can request that base station 204 be added to the active set of subscriber station 206 . in the exemplary embodiment , subscriber station 206 can receive data transmission from zero or one member of the active set . a block diagram of the exemplary forward link architecture of the present invention is shown in fig3 a . the data is partitioned into data packets and provided to crc encoder 312 . for each data packet , crc encoder 312 generates frame check bits ( e . g ., the crc parity bits ) and inserts the code tail bits . the formatted packet from crc encoder 312 comprises the data , the frame check and code tail bits , and other overhead bits which are described below . the formatted packet is provided to encoder 314 which , in the exemplary embodiment , encodes the data in accordance with a convolutional or turbo encoding format . the encoded packet from encoder 314 is provided to interleaver 316 which reorders the code symbols in the packet . the interleaved packet is provided to frame puncture element 318 which removes a fraction of the packet in the manner described below . the punctured packet is provided to multiplier 320 which scrambles the data with the scrambling sequence from scrambler 322 . the output from multiplier 320 comprises the scrambled packet . the scrambled packet is provided to variable rate controller 330 which demultiplexes the packet into k parallel in - phase and quadrature - phase channels , where k is dependent on the data rate . in the exemplary embodiment , the scrambled packet is first demultiplexed into the in - phase ( i ) and quadrature - phase ( q ) streams . in the exemplary embodiment , the i stream comprises even indexed symbols and the q stream comprises odd indexed symbol . each stream is further demultiplexed into k parallel channels such that the symbol rate of each channel is fixed for all data rates . the k channels of each stream are provided to walsh cover element 332 which covers each channel with a walsh function to provide orthogonal channels . the orthogonal channel data is provided to gain element 334 which scales the data to maintain a constant total - energy - per - chip ( and hence constant output power ) for all data rates . the scaled data from gain element 334 is provided to multiplexer ( mux ) 360 which multiplexes the data with a preamble sequence . the output from mux 360 is provided to multiplexer ( mux ) 362 which multiplexes the traffic data , the power control bits , and the pilot data . the output of mux 362 comprises the i walsh channels and the q walsh channels . the reverse link power control ( rpc ) bits are provided to symbol repeater 350 which repeats each rpc bit a predetermined number of times . the repeated rpc bits are provided to walsh cover element 352 which covers the bits with the walsh covers corresponding to the rpc indices . the covered bits are provided to gain element 354 which scales the bits prior to modulation so as to maintain a constant total transmit power . in addition , a forward activity bit is provided to symbol repeater 350 . the forward activity bit alerts subscriber station 106 to a forthcoming blank frame in which the base station will not transmit forward link data . this transmission is made in order to allow subscriber station 106 to make a better estimate of the c / i of the signal from base stations 102 . the repeated versions of the forward activity bit are walsh covered in walsh cover element 352 so as to be orthogonal to the walsh covered power control bits . the covered bits are provided to gain element 354 which scales the bits prior to modulation so as to maintain a constant total transmit power . in addition , a busy tone is provided to symbol repeater 350 . the busy tone alerts subscriber station 106 to a reverse link loading condition . in an exemplary embodiment , the busy tone is a single bit indicative of the reverse link being fully loaded or having capacity . in the preferred embodiment , the busy tone is a two bit signal indicative of a request by base stations 102 for subscriber stations 106 in its coverage area to either deterministically increase or decrease the rate of their reverse link transmissions , or to stochastically increase or decrease the rate of their reverse link transmissions . the repeated versions of the busy tone is walsh covered in walsh cover element 352 so as to be orthogonal to the walsh covered power control bits and forward activity bit . the covered bit is provided to gain element 354 which scales the bits prior to modulation so as to maintain a constant total transmit power . the pilot data comprises a sequence of all zeros ( or all ones ) which is provided to multiplier 356 . multiplier 356 covers the pilot data with walsh code w 0 . since walsh code w 0 is a sequence of all zeros , the output of multiplier 356 is the pilot data . the pilot data is time multiplexed by mux 362 and provided to the i walsh channel which is spread by the short pn i code within complex multiplier 366 ( see fig3 b ). in the exemplary embodiment , the pilot data is not spread with the long pn code , which is gated off during the pilot burst by mux 376 , to allow reception by all subscriber stations 376 . the pilot signal is thus an unmodulated bpsk signal . a block diagram of the exemplary modulator used to modulate the data is illustrated in fig3 b . the i walsh channels and q walsh channels are provided to summers 364 a and 364 b , respectively , which sum the k walsh channels to provide the signals i sum and q sum , respectively . the i sum and q sum signals are provided to complex multiplier 366 . complex multiplier 366 also receives the pn_i and pn_q signals from multipliers 378 a and 378 b , respectively , and multiplies the two complex inputs in accordance with the following equation : ( i mult + jq mult ) =  ( i sum + j   q sum ) · ( pn_i + j   pn_q ) =  ( i sum · pn_i - q sum · pn_q ) +  j   ( i sum · pn_q + q sum · pn_i ) , ( 2 ) where mult and q mult are the outputs from complex multiplier 366 and j is the complex representation . the i mult and q mult signals are provided to filters 368 a and 368 b , respectively , which filter the signals . the filtered signals from filters 368 a and 368 b are provided to multipliers 370 a and 370 b , respectively , which multiply the signals with the in - phase sinusoid cos ( w c t ) and the quadrature - phase sinusoid sin ( w c t ), respectively . the i modulated and q modulated signals are provided to summer 372 which sums the signals to provide the forward modulated waveform s ( t ). in the exemplary embodiment , the data packet is spread with the long pn code and the short pn codes . the long pn code scrambles the packet such that only the subscriber station 106 for which the packet is destined is able to descramble the packet . in the exemplary embodiment , the pilot and power control bits and the control channel packet are spread with the short pn codes but not the long pn code to allow all subscriber stations 106 to receive these bits . the long pn sequence is generated by long code generator 374 and provided to multiplexer ( mux ) 376 . the long pn mask determines the offset of the long pn sequence and is uniquely assigned to the destination subscriber station 106 . the output from mux 376 is the long pn sequence during the data portion of the transmission and zero otherwise ( e . g . during the pilot and power control portion ). the gated long pn sequence from mux 376 and the short pn i and pn q sequences from short code generator 380 are provided to multipliers 378 a and 378 b , respectively , which multiply the two sets of sequences to form the pn_i and pn_q signals , respectively . the pn_i and pn_q signals are provided to complex multiplier 366 . the block diagram of the exemplary traffic channel shown in fig3 a and 3b is one of numerous architectures which support data encoding and modulation on the forward link . other architectures , such as the architecture for the forward link traffic channel in the cdma system which conforms to the is - 95 standard , can also be utilized and are within the scope of the present invention . a diagram of the exemplary forward link frame structure of the present invention is illustrated in fig4 a . the traffic channel transmission is partitioned into frames which , in the exemplary embodiment , are defined as the length of the short pn sequences or 26 . 67 msec . each frame can carry control channel information addressed to all subscriber stations 106 ( control channel frame ), traffic data addressed to a particular subscriber station 106 ( traffic frame ), or can be empty ( idle frame ). the content of each frame is determined by the scheduling performed by the transmitting base station 102 . in the exemplary embodiment , each frame comprises 16 time slots , with each time slot having a duration of 1 . 667 msec . a time slot of 1 . 667 msec is adequate to enable subscriber station 106 to perform the c / i measurement of the forward link signal . a time slot of 1 . 667 msec also represents a sufficient amount of time for efficient packet data transmission . in the exemplary embodiment , each forward link data packet comprises 1024 or 2048 bits . thus , the number of time slots required to transmit each data packet is dependent on the data rate and ranges from 16 time slots for the 38 . 4 kbps rate to 1 time slot for the 1 . 2288 mbps rate and higher . an exemplary diagram of the forward link slot structure of the present invention is shown in fig4 b . in the exemplary embodiment , each slot comprises three of the four time multiplexed channels , the traffic channel , the control channel , the pilot channel , and the overhead control channel . in the exemplary embodiment , the pilot signal is transmitted in two bursts and the overhead control channel is transmitted on either side of the second pilot burst . the traffic data is carried in three portions of the slot ( 402 a , 402 b and 402 c ). the first pilot burst 406 a is time multiplexed into the first half of the slot by multiplexer 362 . the second pilot burst 406 b is time multiplexed into the second half of the slot . one either side of second pilot burst 406 b overhead channel data 408 including the forward activity bit , the busy tones and the power control bits are multiplexed into the slot . [ 0067 ] fig5 illustrates subscriber station 106 of the present invention . forward link signals are received at antenna 500 and provided through duplexer 502 to receiver 504 . in the exemplary embodiment , receiver 504 is a quaternary phase shift keying ( qpsk ) receiver . it will be understood by one skilled in the art that the present invention is equally applicable to any other modulation format such as bpsk or qam . the in - phase and quadrature - phase components of the received signal are provided to pn despreaders 506 . in the exemplary embodiment , multiple pn despreaders 506 a - 506 n are provided . each of despreaders 506 is capable of demodulating a signal from a different base station in the active set of subscriber station 106 or a different multipath component of the signal from a base station . the pn despread signal is provided to power control command ( pcc ) demodulator 508 . in the exemplary embodiment , pcc demodulator 508 performs an fht on the received power control symbols and determines whether the base station is requesting subscriber station 106 to increase or decrease its transmission energy . the demodulated power control symbols are provided to power control command combiner 516 . in the exemplary embodiment , power control command combiner 516 soft combines multipath components of the power control command symbols from a single base station and generates a hard estimate of the power control command from each base station . the hard decision from each of the base stations is stored in memory 518 . in an alternative embodiment , a statistic representing the recent history of power control commands from each base station is stored in memory 518 . then , power control command combiner 516 performs an or - of - the - downs operation in which the transmission energy of subscriber station 106 is only increased if all the power control commands indicate a need to increase the transmission energy . power control command combiner 516 provides a control signal to transmitter ( tmtr ) 528 increasing or decreasing its amplification of the reverse link signal from subscriber station 106 . the pn despread signals from pn despreaders 506 are also provided to pilot demodulators 510 . pilot demodulators 510 despread the pilot signal . in the exemplary embodiment , the walsh 0 function is used to spread the pilot signal , and as such pilot demodulators 510 are implemented as accumulators . the despread pilot signals are provided to energy calculators 512 . energy calculators 512 compute the energy of the demodulated pilot bursts . in the exemplary embodiment , this operation is performed by summing the squares of the demodulated symbol amplitudes . the calculated energy values are provided to control processor 520 . control processor 520 sums the energies from multipath components of a common base station and generates and chip energy to interference ratio for each base station . control processor 520 then selects the base station with the highest ( c / i ) and selects a requested rate for that base station . after the base station is selected the operation described in fig1 is performed by control processor 520 . after performing the selection process described with respect to fig1 a signal indicative of the selected base station and a symbol indicative of the requested rate are provided to spreading element 524 . in the exemplary embodiment , the rate request is spread by the signal indicative of the selected base station . this signal is multiplexed with other overhead data such as a reverse rate indicator ( rri ) and the pilot symbols . in the exemplary embodiment , this data is provided on the in - phase component of a transmitted qpsk signal . the reverse link traffic data is modulated and provided for transmission on the quadrature phase component of the transmitted qpsk signal . transmitter 528 upconverts amplifies and filters the signal for transmission . in the exemplary embodiment , transmitter 528 also spreads the reverse link signal in accordance with a pseudonoise sequence . the signal is provided through duplexer 502 for transmission through antenna 500 . the previous description of the preferred embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention . the various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without the use of the inventive faculty . thus , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein .