Patent 7171246 was granted and assigned to Nokia on January, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method of noise suppression to suppress noise in a signal containing background noise (314) in a communications path between a cellular communications network and a mobile terminal. The method comprises the steps of:estimating and up-dating a spectrum of the background noise (332, 334);using the background noise spectrum to suppress noise in the signal;generating an indication to indicate the operation of at least one of a discontinuous transmission unit (DTX) and a bad frame handling unit (BFI); andfreezing estimating and up-dating of the spectrum of the background noise when the indication is present.