Algorithm for AGC index management against crowded radio environment

Connected devices are part of everyday life. The proliferation of connected portable devices such as mobile phones, laptop, smart watches, tablets, or non-portable connected devices such as TV, video game console saturates the environment with RF signals. In parallel to the reception of desired data from its communication partner(s), such connected devices receive also unwanted signals, so called interferers. The interferers, especially from Wi-Fi signals, can occur in a random manner in the form of a signal burst of variable duration and have a signal strength possibly much higher than the desired signal. Interferers with a high signal strength can cause saturation of the receiver preventing proper reception of the desired data. Some techniques tackle this issue by continuously monitoring the received signal strength and adjust immediately the receiver gain to avoid saturation whilst still maintaining the highest sensitivity level. However, when operating popular wireless communication protocols such as Wireless PAN (Bluetooth, BLE, Zigbee...), the receiver is not allowed to adjust the gain during the data payload. RF receivers for these communication protocols adjust then the gain during a time interval prior to the payload reception based on the real-time received signal and freeze the gain just before switching to the payload reception period. This is illustrated in figure 1. Due to the random nature in occurrence and strength level, interferers may appear during the data payload, receiver may saturate causing data loss.