Automatic gain control in a wireless local area network receiver

A receiver, comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) front end;
• an analog baseband circuit coupled to the RF front end;
• a digital baseband circuit coupled to the analog baseband circuit;
• a power estimator comprising a first power estimator operable to receive an in-phase signal, a second power estimator operable to receive a quadrature signal, and a combiner coupled to outputs of the first and second power estimators, the combiner having an output that supplies estimated signal power;
• and
• an automatic gain controller coupled to the output of the combiner, the automatic gain controller operable to, in a first mode, turn off one of the first or second power estimators such that the one of the first or second power estimators is an inactive power estimator and the other is an active power estimator, and control the combiner to generate the estimated signal power using a function of an output of active power estimator;
• where the RF front end and the analog baseband circuit are operable to generate the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal.