Patent ID: 8098770

Claim:
A method for estimating channel noise power in binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulated telecommunication, the method comprising: receiving over the channel a first known signal, the first known signal having an identified functional form; after receiving the first known signal, formulating a channel transfer function estimate for the channel, the channel transfer function estimate being based on the first known signal and including a channel estimation error; receiving over the channel a second BPSK signal, the second BPSK signal including noise having a power; equalizing the second BPSK signal using the transfer function estimate; and estimating the second BPSK signal noise power, the noise power being substantially independent of the channel estimation error; wherein: the estimating comprises combining the second BPSK signal and the channel transfer function estimate into a combination having a combination noise power that corresponds to the second BPSK signal noise power; if the combination noise power is substantially equal to zero: (a) a mathematical product of the second BPSK signal and the channel transfer function estimate is substantially equal to one and (b) the numerical value of the combination remains substantially constant when the estimation error changes; and the combination noise power depends on: (a) the mathematical product; (b) a first sum resulting from the addition of squared combination signal values, each value corresponding to a different temporal segment of the combination signal; and (c) a second sum resulting from the addition of the combination signal values.