Wireless communications receiver employing a unique combination of quick paging channel symbols to facilitate detection of a primary paging channel

A system for selectively demodulating a primary paging channel in a wireless communications system based on a quick paging channel comprising:

• first means for extracting pilot signal and a quick paging signal from a received signal, said quick paging signal having a slot with a first quick paging symbol and a second quick paging symbol;
• second means for estimating pilot signal strengths associated with said first quick paging symbol and said second quick paging symbol;
• third means for computing page energies and pilot energies associated with said first and second quick paging symbols;
• fourth means receiving and demodulating a forthcoming primary paging signal;
• and
• fifth means for selectively activating said fourth means, based on said pilot signal strengths, said page energies, said pilot energies, said pilot signal, and said paging signal.

A dual paging channel receiver comprising:

• a receiver for receiving a radio frequency signal and providing a digital baseband signal in response thereto;
• a received energy estimator for calculating a first energy associated with said digital baseband signal;
• a pilot computation circuit for extracting an estimate of a pilot signal from said digital baseband signal and computing an energy estimate of said pilot signal;
• a despreader circuit for extracting a quick paging channel signal component from said digital baseband signal;
• a demodulator and combiner for selectively combining said quick paging channel signal component and said pilot signal to yield a decision metric;
• a detector for providing an indication of the presence or absence of an immediately forthcoming page on a primary paging channel of said received signal based on said decision metric.

A wireless communications device comprising:

• first means for receiving a radio frequency signal and providing a digital baseband signal in response thereto and for transmitting radio frequency signals;
• second means for calculating a first energy associated with said digital baseband signal provided by said first means;
• third means for extracting an estimate of a pilot signal from said digital baseband signal provided by said first means and computing an energy estimate of said pilot signal;
• fourth means for extracting a quick paging channel signal component from said digital baseband signal;
• fifth means for selectively combining said quick paging channel signal component and said pilot signal to yield a decision metric;
• sixth means providing an indication of the presence or absence of an immediately forthcoming page on a primary paging channel of said radio frequency signal received via said first means;
• and
• seventh means for selectively employing said first means, said fourth means, and fifth means to process a subsequent page of a primary paging channel in response to said indication and establishing a traffic channel in response to the processing of said subsequent page.

A method for efficiently employing a quick paging channel signal to determine the presence of a forthcoming primary paging channel signal in a wireless communications system employing a quick paging channel and a primary paging channel comprising the steps of:

• calculating a first decision parameter based on a carrier signal to interference ratio associated with said quick paging channel signal and based on a pilot signal;
• computing a second decision parameter based on a combination of said quick paging channel signal and said pilot signal based on and energies associated with said pilot signal and said quick paging channel signal;
• and
• indicating, based on said first decision parameter and said second decision parameter, the presence or absence of an immediately forthcoming page message on said primary paging channel.

A system for interpreting a quick paging channel signal in a wireless communications system comprising:

• a receiver circuit having an antenna and a receive chain;
• a pilot estimation circuit in communication with said receiver;
• a total received energy computation circuit in communication with said receiver;
• a quick paging channel symbol combiner in communication with said pilot estimation circuit, said total received energy computation circuit, and said receiver;
• and
• a page detector in communication with said quick paging channel symbol combiner.