Apparatus and method for estimating interference and noise in a communication system

A method for estimating noise power in a communication system, comprising:

• correlating a plurality of sub-caters with a preset reference sequence on an element-by-element basis;
• and
• calculating a difference between a correlation value associated with each of the plurality of sub-carriers and a correlation value produced from at least one adjacent sub-carrier;
• wherein the at least one adjacent sub-carrier comprises at least one sub-carrier closest to each of the plurality of sub-carriers according to characteristics of the communication system and the number of the at least one adjacent sub-carrier is different according to characteristics of the communication system.

An apparatus for estimating a carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR), comprising:

• a signal power estimator for measuring a total signal power from a received signal:
• an interference and noise power estimator for producing correlation values associated with a plurality of sub-carriers by correlating the received signal with a reference sequence on an element-by-element basis, calculating a difference between a correlation value associated with each sub-carrier and a correlation value associated with at least one adjacent sub-carrier, and estimating an interference and noise power from the difference;
• and
• a CINR estimator for estimating a ratio between an estimated tine-signal power value and an estimated interference and noise power value using the total signal power value output from the signal power estimator and a noise power value output from the interference and noise power estimator;
• wherein the at least one adjacent sub-carrier comprises at least one sub-carrier closest to each of the plurality of sub-carriers according to characteristics of a communication system and the number of the at least one adjacent sub-carrier is different according to characteristics of the communication system.

A method for estimating a carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR), comprising:

• measuring a total signal power from a received signal:
• producing correlation values associated with a plurality of sub-carriers by correlating the received signal with a reference sequence on an element-by-element basis;
• calculating a difference between a correlation value associated with each sub-carrier and a correlation value associated with at least one adjacent sub-carrier, wherein the difference is at least one of an interference and noise value of corresponding sub-carrier;
• estimating a power of the at least one of the interference and the noise by using the difference;
• and
• estimating a ratio (CINR) between an estimated true-signal power value and an estimated interference and noise power value using the total signal power and the at least one of the interference and the noise power;
• wherein the at least one adjacent sub-carrier comprises at least one sub-carrier closest to each of the plurality of sub-carriers according to characteristics of a communication system and the number of the at least one adjacent sub-carrier is different according to characteristics of the communication system.