Patent ID: 7173991

Claim:
A method of processing an initial channel estimate including a plurality of initial channel estimate values, the initial channel estimate corresponding to a multi-tone communications channel, the method comprising: filtering the initial channel estimate using a real filter to produce a filtered channel estimate including a set of filtered channel estimate values; identifying regions of said initial channel estimate corresponding to multi-path interference; performing a channel compensation operation using at least one initial channel estimate value corresponding to a channel estimate region where multi-path interference is identified and using at least one filtered channel estimate value in another channel estimate region; wherein said communications channel is a communications channel through which an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal is transmitted; wherein each of said initial communications channel estimate values corresponds to the frequency of a tone of said orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal; and wherein said step of identifying regions of said initial channel estimate corresponding to multi-path interference includes identifying regions where said multi-path interference is sufficient to cause said filtering to produce filtered channel estimate values which are less accurate than the unfiltered channel estimate values corresponding to the same regions.