Measuring Received Signal Quality

• US 20090129357A1
• Filed: 03/08/2006
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Stanhope, David, Isaac, Paul, Vasic, Dobrica, Wang, Xinhua
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/342
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/21 for calibration; for correcting measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/327 Received signal code power [RSCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/12 Outer and inner loops
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/241 taking into account channel quality metrics, e.g. SIR, SNR, CIR, Eb/lo

Abstract

A method of determining a signal quality parameter in a radio communications device includes: measuring a signal error parameter of a received signal (104); comparing said measured signal error parameter to a threshold level (106), and determining the signal quality parameter on the basis of a reference signal error parameter value (114) in the event that the measured signal error parameter value is less than the threshold level (112).

Claims

1. A method of determining a signal quality parameter in a radio communications device, said method including:

measuring a signal error parameter of a received signal;

comparing said measured signal error parameter to a threshold level, and

determining the signal quality parameter on the basis of a reference signal error parameter value in the event that the measured signal error parameter value is less than the threshold level.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the method further includes determining the reference signal error from at least one signal measurement.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the reference signal error value is predetermined.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the method additionally includes determining the threshold level on the basis of at least one signal measurement.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the threshold level is determined on the basis of a measured power of another channel.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein method includes:

determining a minimum signal expected error parameter value; and

setting the threshold level to said minimum signal error parameter value.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the reference signal error parameter value corresponds to the predetermined threshold level.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the method is used to determine at least one of a signal to interference ratio (SIR), and a signal to noise ratio (SNR), of a received radio channel.

16. A method of power control in a radio telecommunication device including:

determining a signal quality parameter in accordance with claim 1;

performing power control in said radio telecommunication device at least partly on the basis of said determined signal quality parameter.

17. A method of gain control in a radio telecommunication device including:

determining a signal quality parameter in accordance with claim 1;

controlling gain in said radio telecommunication device at least partly on the basis of said determined signal quality parameter.

9. A device adapted to determine a signal quality parameter of a received radio signal, said device including:

a measurement component configured to measure at least one signal error parameter of the received signal,

comparison means configured to compare a measured signal error parameter to a corresponding threshold level, and

memory means storing a set of instructions to control the operation of a data processing means; and

data processing means, operating under control of said set of instructions, to determine the signal quality parameter of the received signal, wherein in the event that a measured signal error parameter value is less than a corresponding threshold level the data processing means is configured to determine the signal quality parameter of the received signal on the basis of a corresponding reference signal error parameter value.

10. A device as claimed in claim 9 which further includes a reference signal determination component configured to determine the reference signal error parameter value.

11. A device as claimed in claim 9 which further includes a threshold determination component configured to determine the threshold level.

12. A device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the threshold determination component is configured to determine the threshold level on the basis of at least one signal measurement.

13. A device as claimed in claim 10 wherein the reference signal determination component is configured to determine the reference signal error parameter value on the basis of at least one signal measurement.

14. A device as claimed in claim 9 wherein at least one of:

the comparison means, the reference signal determination component or threshold determination component is implemented as a software component.

15. A device as claimed in claims 14 wherein said software component is stored as a set of instructions in said memory means for control of the processor means.

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)