Patent ID: 8306162

Claim:
A digital communications receiver comprising: at least one controllable amplifier stage operating based on a calculated error power; and at least one analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for receiving a signal from the at least one controllable amplifier stage; and at least one gain controller; and wherein the at least one gain controller is configured to: receive at least one input sample; calculate a complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) for the input sample within a predetermined clipping level of the ADC; calculate an error value, the error value being the difference between the calculated CCDF and a target CCDF; and apply the error value to a multiplication function where it is multiplied with a value representing loop gain to generate a multiplication function output, the multiplication function output being input to a loop filter, the loop filter summing the multiplication function output and a previous value of a gain control value of the at least one gain controller thereby generating a control value as a function of the error value for adjusting the gain of the at least one controllable amplifier stage which in turn controls the ADC input signal power level to yield a desired probability of clipping without prior consideration of waveform characteristics.