Patent ID: 8135056

Claim:
A noise measurement method comprising: determining that a short-spreading-factor code is unoccupied, wherein the short-spreading-factor code has a short spreading factor that is less than a longest spreading factor of an occupied longest-spreading-factor code associated with a longest-spreading factor time period; measuring a first symbol energy, during a first short time period, based on the short-spreading-factor code to provide a first measured symbol energy; measuring a second symbol energy, during a second short time period, based on the short-spreading-factor code to provide a second measured symbol energy, wherein the first and second short time periods occupy different time periods within the longest-spreading-factor time period, wherein the first symbol energy corresponds to an energy associated with a symbol having a first symbol type and the second symbol energy corresponds to an energy associated with a symbol having the first symbol type; and generating a first noise estimate based on a difference between the first measured symbol energy and the second measured symbol energy.