Patent ID: 7545866

Claim:
A method of adapting a communications link between a transmitter and a receiver based on a quality estimate for a signal transmitted via the communications link, comprising: receiving and demodulating the transmitted signal; a first control loop assessing the demodulated signal to derive a first estimate for the signal quality used in a link adaptation scheme in which the first estimate is mapped on a signal quality parameter in accordance with a mapping rule or compared with a target value; prior to decoding, further processing the demodulated signal, wherein based on at least one of the further processed, non-decoded signal and information obtained prior to conclusion of decoding a second control loop different from and slower than the first control loop derives a second different estimate for the signal quality using the further processed, non-decoded signal and uses the second signal quality estimate to control the link adaptation scheme by adjusting the mapping rule or changing the target value; a third control loop different from and slower than the second control loop analyzing the decoded signal to generate a third signal quality estimate different from the first and second estimates and using the third signal quality estimate to change the target value; and wherein the further processing includes at least one of Rake combining, interference cancellation, and de-interleaving.