For CDMA cell-based systems we propose an uplink power control scheme for low data packet queueing delay. The scheme can be seen as a simple extension to the Foschini-Miljanic algorithm which takes the transmit queue sizes at the mobile stations into account. The proposed scheme minimizes the draining time compared to all other policies with the same power consumption. This is because of resource pooling effects which arise when all queues empty at the same time. Although in CDMA systems there is no idle capacity as in wired systems, greater cummulative service is obtained by simultaneous transmissions than through time-sharing. Simulations exhibit significant reductions in queueing delay compared to other power control schemes proposed in the literature.

We consider the joint minimization of queueing cost and power consumption in a wireless network, over all power control policies at the transmitters. Approximately optimal policies are derived through the use of a comparison to a single link system offering lower bounds for both performance metrics. The derived policies are of a simple form: the total power consumed at any instant is a monotonic function of a linear combination of the queue backlogs at that instant, while the portions of power allocated to each transmitter are such that the resulting link speeds are proportional to the queue backlogs. Simulations show that the lower bounds become tight -and so the policies become optimal- as the average power approaches the lowest value for which stability is maintained. Moreover, these policies are shown to perform better than gradient projection -based power adaptive algorithms such those arising in formulations using static optimization problems.