1. In a digital communication device, an improvement of an approximator for forming an approximation of a Euclidean norm of a data symbol defined in terms of a first component portion and at least a second component portion, said approximator comprising: a detector adapted to receive indications of the first and at least second component portions of the data symbol; a transformer coupled to said detector, said transformer for transforming the first component portion into a first transformed value and for transducing the second component portion into a second transformed value, the first and second transformed values, respectively, formed by said transformer selected such that a geometric argument defined therefrom is within a selected angular range; and an estimator adapted to receive the first and second transformed values, respectively, said estimator for estimating the Euclidean norm of the data symbol, the Euclidean norm estimated to be a summation of a first product value formed from the first transformed value and a second product value formed from the second transformed value.