Patent ID: 7706473

Claim:
A method for signal strength detection, the method comprising: comparing a signal strength representation of a signal with a signal strength representation of a reference signal; when the signal strength representation of the signal compares unfavorably with the signal strength representation of the reference signal, adjusting at least one of the signal strength representation of the signal and the signal strength representation of the reference signal until the signal strength representation of the signal compares favorably with the signal strength representation of the reference signal; determining signal strength of the signal based on the at least one of adjusting of the signal strength representation of the signal and the signal strength representation of the reference signal; performing a signal metric conversion on an AC voltage level of the reference signal to produce the signal strength representation of the reference signal, wherein the AC voltage level of the reference signal is at a known AC voltage; performing the signal metric conversion on an AC voltage level of the signal to produce the signal strength representation of the signal; wherein the signal metric conversion comprises a mean square computation; and wherein the mean square (MS) computation comprises; converting the AC voltage level of the reference signal into a reference MS current based on a square of the AC voltage level of the reference signal and a voltage-to-current factor to produce the signal strength representation of the reference signal; and converting the AC voltage level of the signal into an MS current based on a square of the AC voltage level of the signal and the voltage-to-current factor to produce the signal strength representation of the signal.