Patent ID: 7248218

Claim:
A method for determination of the quality of a radio link, in which the radio signals propagate via two or more propagation paths, comprising: estimating a parameter that is characteristic of a signal strength of a received signal that is transmitted via a line-of-sight path, with respect to a strength of received signals transmitted via non-line-of-sight paths; and assuming a Rice distribution as the distribution function for the signal strength amplitude, wherein the estimated parameter comprises a Rice factor (K), and wherein the Rice factor is estimated using: K ^ E ≈ E ^ ⁢ { R 2 } - 2 · E ^ ⁢ { ( R - E ^ ⁢ { R } ) 2 } 2 · E ^ ⁢ { ( R - E ^ ⁢ { R } ) 2 } where R is the amplitude of the sample values of the received signal and Ê{x} is approximated by a running averaging of x.