Determination of received signal strength in a direct conversion receiver

An apparatus for determining received signal strength in a direct conversion receiver, the apparatus comprises:

• means for determining, at a given time, a first value to be the larger of an in-phase component value and a quadrature component value of a down-converted baseband signal;
• means for determining, at the given time, a second value to be the smaller of the in-phase component value and the quadrature component value of the down-converted baseband signal;
• and
• means for determining the received signal strength indication based on the first value, the second value, and an offset value.

A radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) comprises:

• transmitter section operably coupled to convert outbound data into outbound radio frequency (RF) signals;
• receiver section operably coupled to convert inbound RF signals into inbound data;
• and
• received signal strength module operably coupled to determine a received signal strength indication of the inbound RF signals, wherein the received signal strength module includes:
• in-phase received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to provide a measure of an in-phase component of a baseband representation of the inbound RF signals to produce an in-phase component value;
• quadrature RSSI to provide a measure of a quadrature component of the baseband representation of the inbound RF signals to produce a quadrature component value;
• means for determining, at a given time, a first value to be the larger of the in-phase component value and the quadrature component value;
• means for determining, at the given time, a second value to be the smaller of the in-phase component value and the quadrature component value;
• and
• means for determining the received signal strength indication based on the first value, the second value, and an offset value.