US Patent 7103377 Small signal threshold and proportional gain distributed digital communications

A method for signal gain adjustment in a multi-port, digital distributed antenna system uses a sorter to sort received signals in ascending order according to their signal levels. A threshold comparator generates a dynamic range fair threshold that is updated as any remaining system dynamic range is distributed amongst the remaining signals. Any received signal that is less than or equal to the threshold is attenuated with a unity gain factor. A signal that is greater than the threshold is attenuated with a gain factor that is inversely proportional to the signal level.