PDCHs with the same relative power difference. The network de- termines the relative transmit power offset between DPCCH fields and DPDCHs. The TFCI, TPC and pilot fields of the DPCCH are offset relative to the DPDCHs power by PO1, PO2 and PO3 dB, respectively. The power offsets may vary in time. The Downlink Power Control Function The UE generates TPC commands to control the network transmit power and send them in the TPC field of the uplink DPCCH. In the absence of UE is soft handover UE TPC command generated get transmitted in the first available TPC field in the uplink DPCCH. In the presence of soft handover, the UE checks the downlink power control mode (DPC_MODE)2 before generating the TPC command as follows [11]: if DPC_MODE = 0, then the UE sends a unique TPC command in each slot and the TPC_cmd generated gets transmitted in the first available TPC field in the uplink DPCCH; 1 As a response to the received TPC commands, UTRAN may adjust the downlink DPCCH/DPDCH power. The DPC_MODE parameter is a UE specific parameter controlled by the UTRAN. The UTRA Physical Layer Design if DPC_MODE = 1, then the UE repeats the same TPC_cmd over 3 slots and we transmit the new TPC_cmd aiming to have a new command at the beginning of the frame. The average DPDCH power symbols3 transmitted over one time slot do not exceed the Maximum_DL_Power (dBm), neither do they fall below the Minimum_DL_Power (dBm). These two powers become power limits for one spreading code. When the UE cannot generate TPC commands due to lack of synchronization, the transmitted TPC command gets set to '1' during the period of out-of-synchronization. Power changes occur in a multiples of the minimum step size ATPC,min (dB), where it is mandatory for UTRAN to support ATPC,min of 1 dB, but optional to support 0.5 dB. The UTRAN may further employ the following method. When the limited power raise parameter value applies, the UTRAN will not increase the DL power of the Radio Link (RL) if it would exceed by more than Power_Raise_Limit (dB) the averaged DL 