Patent ID: 7483501

Claim:
A method of estimating radio frequency background noise in a radio receiver system, said method comprising: (a) determining a total receiver front-end noise based on a noise equivalent receiver bandwidth; (b) estimating an external noise associated with said radio receiver system; (c) determining an internal noise associated with said radio receiver system from a known noise value; (d) combining said external noise with said internal noise; (e) determining an absolute external radio frequency background noise floor associated with said radio receiver system; (f) estimating an out of band noise contribution based on radio receiver selectivity and known received noise levels of out of band sources; (g) generating a radio frequency noise estimate in said radio receiver system based on the steps (a) through (f) (h) utilizing a selectivity value of said radio receiver system; (i) utilizing known input noise values of radio frequency sources; and (j) combining said selectivity value and said known input noise values to generate said radio frequency noise estimate in said radio receiver system.