A system and method for estimating the power-level of a signal received at
a mobile-station receiver operating in a wireless network according to a
CDMA standard. An analog automatic gain controller (AGC) loop, a digital
filter, and a digital AGC loop are used, in sequence, to process a
received RF signal that has been amplified, converted to baseband, and
filtered using an analog baseband signal. The linear gain values of the
analog AGC and the digital AGC are multiplied to produce a gain-value
product. The logarithm of the gain-value product is used for executing the
power-estimating function by comparison to a predetermined received-signal
power estimation curve.
