Control technique for an rf communication system

An interference detecting circuit is used in a cellular radiotelephone communication system which employs angular modulated frequencies in order to determine when to change the communication process so as to maintain the integrity of the communication path. For example, when the circuit detects an excessive amount of multipath or co-channel interference on a channel serving an active call, the system attempts to handoff the call to another channel. Also, when the circuit detects an excessive amount of multipath or co-channel interference on a channel serving an active call, the system may decrease the effective data bit rate. The circuit includes a logarithmic envelope detector 150 for receiving a channel's angular modulated signal and for providing a log envelope output signal, a high pass filter 152 for removing a particular range of undesired frequencies from the log envelope output signal, and a level detector 154 for indicating the level of filtered output signal. The output of the level detector represents the amount of interference on the angular modulated frequency signal. A microcomputer analyzes the amount of interference to determine when such communication process changes are desired or to determine if a handoff is required.