Patent ID: 7454181

Claim:
A wireless apparatus, comprising: a primary receiver; a second receiver, the second receiver adapted for multiple-antenna receive diversity in the wireless apparatus; a diversity controller coupled to the second receiver and adapted to enable and disable the second receiver, the diversity controller comprising: first estimator for estimating a capacity usage of the wireless apparatus; second estimator for estimating a load on network capacity; and control means for enabling the second receiver as a function of the estimated capacity usage of the wireless apparatus and the estimated load on network capacity, wherein the estimated capacity usage of the wireless apparatus is given as E CT /I OR , wherein I OR represents the total energy per chip of all channels transmitting from a transmitter in the network, and E CT represents energy per chip of a traffic channel, wherein the estimated load on network capacity is given as I OR /E CP , wherein I OR represents the total energy per chip for all channels transmitting from the transmitter in the network and E CP represents energy per chip of a pilot signal, and wherein the control means is adapted to calculate a capacity estimate as: Capacity Estimate =I OR /E CP +E CT /I OR ; and wherein enabling the second receiver is a function of the capacity estimate.