In-service signal quality estimation for TDMA cellular systems

In-service interference plus noise power (I+N) and signal-to-interference plus noise power SI(I+N) estimation methods are examined for TDMA cellular systems. A simple (I+N) estimator is developed whose accuracy depends on the channel and symbol estimate error statistics. Improved (I+N) and S/(I+N) estimators are developed whose accuracy depends only on the symbol error statistics. The proposed estimators are evaluated through software simulation with an IS-54 frame structure. For high speed mobiles, it is demonstrated that S/(I+N) can be estimated to within 2 dB in less than a second.