Estimating local mean signal power level in a Rayleigh fading environment

Good estimates of local mean signal power level are needed by wireless cellular systems for use in channel access, power control and handoff. Many systems today use weighted sample average estimators which are not optimal in Rayleigh fading environments. The optimal local mean signal level estimator for the Rayleigh fading environment will be derived and compared with the sample average estimator. Index Terms - Fading, parameter estimation.