Patent ID: 7817760

Claim:
A method for deriving sample timing for a plurality of signal instances received on a plurality of antennas at a receiver unit in a wireless communication system, comprising: deriving an error metric from a signal energy for each of the plurality of signal instances received on a corresponding one of the plurality of antennas, the plurality of signal instances being different multi-path propagation instances of a transmitted first wireless signal, wherein each signal instance includes pilot samples, wherein deriving the error metric for each signal instance comprises subtracting energy of late pilot samples from energy of early pilot samples for each of the plurality of signal instances; combining error metrics for the plurality of signal instances received on the plurality of antennas for each update period to provide a composite error metric for the update period, wherein each error metric is weighted based on a signal quality of each signal instance; updating a loop filter based on the composite error metric; deriving a first sample timing for the plurality of signal instances based on an output of the loop filter; applying the same first sample timing to each of the plurality of signal instances, wherein the sample timing comprises one of the following: a timing for the best signal instance from among the plurality of signal instances; an average timing of the plurality of signal instances; or an average timing of a subset of the plurality of signal instances; and combining the plurality of signal instances after applying the first sample timing to them to reconstruct a version of the first wireless signal.