Configuration of wireless receiver

1. A method of configuring a wireless receiver, comprising:

determining a geometry factor for a channel over which signals are transmitted to the wireless receiver, the geometry factor being a measure indicative of a relationship between signal power transmitted in a cell and inter-cell interference plus noise power at the wireless receiver;

determining a variance of the determined geometry factor, the variance being a measure indicative of the variation in time or rate of change of the geometry factor; and

configuring the wireless receiver based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the geometry factor comprises:

estimating a signal-to-interference ratio, SIR, at the wireless receiver; and

determining the geometry factor based on the SIR estimate.

3. The method according to claim 2 , comprising:

estimating the SIR based on channel estimates derived by the wireless receiver from a pilot signal transmitted over a pilot channel, the pilot channel having a transmit power level which is unknown to the wireless receiver;

estimating the transmit power level of the pilot channel at the wireless receiver;

determining the geometry factor based on a ratio of the pilot channel transmit power level estimate to the SIR estimate.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the geometry factor comprises:

computing combining weights and net channel coefficients by the wireless receiver;

determining a degree of correlation between the combing weights and the net channel coefficients; and

determining the geometry factor based on the degree of correlation between the combing weights and the net channel coefficients.

5. The method according to claim 4 , comprising:

setting the geometry factor to a first value indicating a relatively high degree of interference responsive to the degree of correlation being above a particular first threshold value set by the wireless receiver; and

otherwise setting the geometry factor to a second value indicating a relatively low degree of interference.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the geometry factor comprises:

computing a first SIR value when the wireless receiver is configured as a maximum ratio combining receiver and a second SIR value when the wireless receiver is configured as an equalizing receiver; and

determining the geometry factor based on a ratio of the first and second SIR values.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the variance of the geometry factor comprises:

computing an average value of the geometry factor;

computing a ratio of said geometry factor and said average value;

obtaining the largest value of said ratio and the inverse of said ratio; and

determining the variance of the geometry factor based on said largest value.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the variance of the geometry factor comprises:

computing an average of the geometry factor;

computing for a number of sampled values of the geometry factor, a difference between the average of the geometry factor and each of said sampled values of the geometry factor;

computing a mean value of the sum of each difference; and

determining the variance of the geometry factor based on said mean value.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the variance of the geometry factor comprises:

obtaining frequency components of the geometry factor, which geometry factor varies over time; and

determining the variance of the geometry factor by analyzing an amount of energy represented by the frequency components.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the configuring comprises configuring one or more functions or algorithms implemented by one or more receiver signal processing circuits of the receiver based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, and/or configuring one or more parameters being input to the receiver signal processing circuits based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the configuring comprises determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, a number of equalizer fingers or equalizer taps used by the wireless receiver for cancelling interference.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising disabling equalization at the wireless receiver and configuring the wireless receiver for maximum ratio combining responsive to the geometry factor being below a particular second threshold and the variance of the geometry factor being above a particular third threshold.

13. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the configuring comprises determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, an amount of filtering applied to one or more estimates generated by the one or more signal processing circuits of the wireless receiver.

14. The method according to claim 13 , comprising determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, an amount of filtering applied to at least one of a non-parametric impairment covariance estimate and an SIR estimate generated by the wireless receiver.

15. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the configuring comprises determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, a number of parameters estimated by the wireless receiver during parametric equalization.

16. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the configuring comprises determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, an amount of soft scaling applied to symbols received by the wireless receiver which are subject to interference caused by a downlink synchronization channel.

17. The method according to claim 1 , comprising determining, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, whether to enable or disable an interference canceller circuit of the wireless receiver and wherein the interference canceller circuit is configured to suppress the interference caused by the downlink synchronization channel.

18. A wireless receiver, comprising:

a geometry factor processing circuit configured to determine a geometry factor for a channel over which signals are transmitted to the wireless receiver, the geometry factor being a measure indicative of a relationship between signal power transmitted in a cell and intra-cell interference plus noise power at the wireless receiver; and

a geometry factor variance processing circuit configured to determine a variance of the geometry factor, the variance being a measure indicative of the variation in time or rate of change of the geometry factor,

wherein:

the wireless receiver is configured to be configured based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor.

19. The wireless receiver according to claim 18 , comprising a signal-to-interference ratio, SIR, estimation circuit configured to generate a SIR estimate, and wherein the geometry factor processing circuit is configured to determine the geometry factor based on the SIR estimate.

20. The wireless receiver according to claim 18 , wherein the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to compute an average value of the geometry factor, and compute a ratio of said geometry factor and said average value, and obtain the largest value of said ratio and the inverse of said ratio, and determine the variance of the geometry factor based on said largest value.

21. The wireless receiver according to claim 18 , wherein the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to compute an average of the geometry factor, and to compute for a number of samples of the geometry factor, a difference between the average of the geometry factor and each of said sampled value of the geometry factor, and to compute a mean value of the sum of each difference, and to determine the variance of the geometry factor based on said mean value.

22. The wireless receiver according to claim 18 , wherein the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to

obtain frequency components of the geometry factor, which geometry factor varies over time; and

determine the variance of the geometry factor by analyzing the amount of energy represented by the frequency components.

23. The wireless receiver according to claim 18 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to configure one or more functions or algorithms implemented by one or more receiver signal processing circuits of the receiver based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, and/or configuring one or more parameters being input to the receiver signal processing circuits based on the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor.

24. The wireless receiver according to claim 23 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is currently amended to determine, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, a number of equalizer fingers or equalizer taps for interference cancellation.

25. The wireless receiver according to claim 24 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to disable equalization and enable maximum ratio combining at the wireless receiver responsive to the geometry factor being below a particular threshold and the variance of the geometry factor being above a particular threshold.

26. The wireless receiver according to claim 23 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to determine, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, an amount of filtering applied to one or more estimates generated by the one or more signal processing circuits.

27. The wireless receiver according to claim 23 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to determine, as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, a number of parameters estimated during parametric equalization.

28. The wireless receiver according to claim 23 , wherein at least one of the geometry factor processing circuit and the geometry factor variance processing circuit is configured to determine whether to enable or disable an interference canceller circuit as a function of the geometry factor and the variance of the geometry factor, and wherein the interference canceller circuit is configured to suppress the interference caused by the downlink synchronization channel.