Patent ID: 7120212

Claim:
A device for the reception of a multicarrier signal, formed by a set of carrier frequencies, said device implementing at least two reception paths supplied with data flows, each conveying a same source symbol (x k (n)), each of said reception paths comprising an estimator associating with each source symbol received, an estimated path value and a corresponding path confidence information element, wherein said source symbols are conveyed by a subset of said set of carrier frequencies, said device comprising means for combining said estimated path values delivering: an adapted estimated value, obtained from said estimated path values, in taking account of said corresponding path confidence information element to weight said estimated path values; and an adapted confidence information element, said device further comprising: a weighted-input decoder supplied by said adapted estimated value, wherein said means for combining computes said adapted estimated value as follows: x ^ Adap , n = ( ∑ i = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ cnfd i , n × x ^ i , d ) / ( ∑ i = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ cnfd i , n ) where: {circumflex over (x)} i,n is the estimated value of the symbol received on the path i; cnfd i,n is the corresponding path confidence information element; and N is the number of paths.