A
receiver circuit provides improved
noise estimation processing by at least partially removing
receiver frequency error bias. An initial
noise estimate is compensated using an error term based on the observed
receiver frequency error, and the resulting compensated
noise estimate can be used to improve other
signal processing in the receiver. For example, the receiver may use compensated noise estimates to generate
signal quality estimates, e.g.,
Signal-to-Interference (SIR) estimates, having improved accuracy. Additionally, or alternatively, the receiver may use the compensated noise estimates to generate
RAKE combining weights having improved
noise suppression characteristics. In an exemplary embodiment, the initial noise estimate is a
noise correlation matrix generated from a received reference
signal, e.g.,
pilot symbols, and the error term is an error matrix directly generated using he observed receiver frequency error and channel estimates taken from the reference signal.