Patent ID: 7020091

Claim:
Apparatus for a first communication station to which data is communicated, the data including a first data-type portion communicated upon a first channel and a MAC (Medium Access Control) data-type portion communicated upon a MAC data channel, said apparatus for estimating a channel phase characteristic associated with the first channel and the MAC data channel said, apparatus comprising: a first data type operator coupled to receive indications of the first data-type portion sent to the first communication station upon the first channel, said first data-type operator for operating upon the first data-type to form a representation of the first-type data portion subsequent to communication upon the first channel; a MAC data-type operator coupled to receive indications of the MAC data-type portion sent to the first communication station upon the MAC data channel, said MAC data-type operator for operating upon the MAC data-type portion to strip informational content out of the MAC data-type portion, thereafter to form a representation of the MAC data portion subsequent to communication upon the MAC data channel; and a channel phase estimator coupled to said first data-type operator to receive the representations of the first data-type portion and coupled to said MAC data-type operator to receive the representation of the MAC data-type portion, said channel phase estimator for estimating the channel phase responsive to values of the representations formed by both of said first data type operator and of said second data-type operator.