Patent ID: 7860198

Claim:
A communications device comprising: a receiver that is configured to receive an information signal, and an estimator that is configured to determine a composite SIR measure, wherein an SIR measure is a measure of signal strength in the information signal relative to noise in the information signal, and the estimator includes: a coherent estimator that is configured to determine a coherent SIR measure, based on received known pilot signals in the information signal, a non-coherent estimator that is configured to determine a non-coherent SIR measure, based on received unknown data signals in the information signal, a decision-feedback estimator that is configured to determine a decision feedback SIR measure, based on determined data signals in the information signal, and a controller that is configured to determine the composite SIR measure based on at least one of the coherent SIR measure, the non-coherent SIR measure, and the decision-feedback SIR measure, wherein at least one of the coherent estimator, the non-coherent estimator and the decision-feedback estimator is not enabled so that at least one of the coherent SIR measure, the non-coherent SIR measure and the decision feedback SIR measure is not computed to determine the composite SIR measure.