Patent ID: 7526041

Claim:
A channel estimation circuit comprising: a tentative channel estimation means for being input with a received signal and performing channel estimation by making use of the received signal and outputting the result of estimation as a tentative channel estimation signal; a noise/interference power estimation means for being input with signals, including at least, the received signal, among the received signal, the tentative channel estimation signal and a channel estimation signal, and performing estimation of noise and interference power by making use of the input signals, to output the result of estimation as a noise/interference power estimation signal; a threshold decision means for being input with signals, including at least, the noise/interference power estimation signal, among the noise/interference power estimation signal and the tentative channel estimation signal, and establishing and outputting a threshold signal by making use of the input signals; and an effective path detection means for being input with the tentative channel estimation signal and the threshold signal and, after removing noise paths having powers smaller than the threshold signal among paths of the tentative channel estimation signal, outputting the remaining signal as the channel estimation signal.