Patent ID: 7603133

Claim:
A method for determining the validity of a most significant path in wireless communications wherein data is transmitted in frame units in a multipath environment, the method comprising: accumulating a correlated data sequence N times, each time at a frame offset apart from the previous time; calculating by a frame tracker processor, a preliminary noise estimate (PNE) equal to an average of the accumulated data values; calculating by the frame tracker processor, a preliminary noise threshold (PNT) according to the equation C 1 ×PNE; calculating by the frame tracker processor, a final noise estimate (FNE) equal to the average of accumulated data values below the PNT; calculating by the frame tracker processor, a final noise threshold (FNT) according to the equation C 2 ×FNE; and determining by the frame tracker processor, the validity of the most significant path if the most significant path value is greater than the FNT.