Patent ID: 7894557

Claim:
In a cellular telephone system comprising at least one antenna for detecting a received signal and a signal processor for processing the received signal detected by the at least one antenna, a method of determining the amount of signal power and interference power in the received signal, the received signal having a wanted signal providing said signal power and a plurality of interfering signals providing said interference power, the wanted signal being encoded such that there is a channel structure including a broadcast control channel, the method comprising use of the signal processor in the steps of: a) selecting a plurality of portions having a first known structure in said received signal, said plurality of portions comprising Frequency Correction Bursts, said plurality of portions being identified using a further known structure within the broadcast control channel to provide a signal having known periods with defined properties, said further known structure comprising sync bursts; b) processing said plurality of portions to derive a set of amplitude values corresponding to said first known structure; and c) determining both said signal power level and said interference power level from said derived set of amplitude values.