System for detecting collisions in a shared communications medium

A system for detecting collisions in a shared communications medium, comprising:

• means for correlating a received signal with a second signal to obtain a correlation metric;
• means for measuring a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal when the correlation metric is greater than a first threshold;
• and
• means for classifying the received signal as an in-phase collision when the measured SNR is less than a second threshold.

A system for detecting collisions in a shared communications medium, comprising:

• a receive path configured to generate a first intermediate signal, a second intermediate signal, and a data symbol sequence from an input signal;
• a preamble detection module configured to generate a correlation metric from the first intermediate signal and a predetermined preamble sequence;
• a power measurement module configured to generate a power indication signal from the second intermediate signal;
• a signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurement module configured to generate a SNR indication signal from the second intermediate signal and the data symbol sequence;
• and
• a processing module configured to characterize the input signal as a collision or a non-collision based on a logical combination of the correlation metric, the measured signal power, and the SNR.