Abstract: A communication receiver includes first and second antenna elements for receiving first and second signals respectively representative of first and second symbols encoded with a first or second channel coefficient and first and second delay lines for delaying the first and second signals respectively. A master rake module up-samples a pilot channel sequence at chip rate to mix it with the second delayed signals to deliver correlated delayed signals and to determine first and second channel coefficient estimates from the first delayed signals and the correlated delayed signals. A slave rake module determines first and second auxiliary composite symbols from the first and second delayed signals, a scrambling code sequence and a spreading code sequence. Lastly the first and second auxiliary composite symbols combine with the first and second channel coefficient estimates to determine first and second output signals.

Abstract: The SINR (signal-to-interference+noise ratio) estimator comprises a low-pass filter (66) to filter a variance ?? computed from the received pilot symbol amplitude to obtain an estimated variance ?? with a reduced bias, wherein the low-pass filter has an adjustable coefficient and the estimator comprises an electronic controller able to adjust the value of the adjustable coefficient according to the number of pilot symbols received during a timeslot.