CN115211039B

CN115211039B - Method for operating a communication device, communication device and non-transitory computer readable medium

Info

Publication number: CN115211039B
Application number: CN202080097800.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 耿继风; 杨鸿魁
Original assignee: Zeku Technology Shanghai Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Zeku Technology Shanghai Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-27
Filing date: 2020-12-15
Publication date: 2023-09-01
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-15
Also published as: CN115211039A; WO2021171084A1

Abstract

Circuits and methods for operating a receiver in a wireless communication system are disclosed. At the front-end circuit, the receiver removes the cyclic prefix, separating the content or symbols associated with the cyclic prefix. The front-end circuit sends the separated CP-free content to the signal processing circuit for further processing.

Description

Method for operating a communication device, communication device and non-transitory computer readable medium

Cross reference

The application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/982,631 filed on month 2/27 of 2020, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to wireless communication methods and apparatus.

Background

The rapid development of computing technology has created a greater demand for data communications. The increase in demand in turn drives further growth in communication technology, which typically requires additional features, increased processing power, and/or increased resources within a given space. This growth often presents new challenges. For example, an increase in the processing speed and/or the amount of data for internal communications between circuits (e.g., within a User Equipment (UE)) increases the power consumption associated with internal data communications.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a wireless communication method and apparatus for performing bus traffic reduction. One or more embodiments provide a method for operating a communication device that may include a front-end circuit communicatively coupled to a signal processing circuit. The method may include: receiving a wireless signal at the communication device, wherein the wireless signal includes content symbols and corresponding prefixes; at the front-end circuitry, separating the content symbols based on removing the corresponding prefixes; and transmitting the separated content symbols to the signal processing circuitry without transmitting the corresponding prefixes. Transmitting the separated content symbols may include digitally transmitting a set of bits representing the content symbols to the signal processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the front-end circuitry may include a radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chip, and the signal processing circuitry may include a baseband modem.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may comprise: down-converting the received wireless signal at the front-end circuit; generating, at the front-end circuit, a baseband bit stream based on sampling the down-converted wireless signal; wherein separating the content symbols comprises: bits in the bitstream are removed or intercepted, wherein the removed or intercepted bits correspond to the prefix. Further, the method further comprises: receiving the separated content symbols at the signal processing circuit; and performing, at the signal processing circuit, a fourier transform on the separated content symbols.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may further comprise: in an initial stage, in the initial stage, sending a first message set from the front-end circuit to the signal processing circuit, wherein the first message set comprises a first set of content symbols and a corresponding plurality of prefixes; and transitioning from the initial stage to a subsequent stage based on a feedback message from the signal processing circuit, wherein the feedback message represents one or more timing details associated with the plurality of prefixes, wherein separating the content symbols and transmitting the separated content symbols may include the subsequent stage; and the separated content symbols include a second set of content symbols following the first set of content symbols. In some embodiments, the method may further comprise: receiving the first set of messages at the signal processing circuit; determining, at the signal processing circuitry, one or more timing details associated with the plurality of prefixes based on the first set of messages; and sending the feedback message to the front-end circuit, wherein the feedback message includes a timing of a symbol boundary, a set of prefix lengths, a current symbol position, a symbol length, or a combination thereof.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may further comprise: receiving information about symbol boundaries within the wireless signal from the signal processing circuitry, wherein separating the content symbols comprises: a set of bits coinciding with and/or immediately following the symbol boundary is removed or masked. The method may further comprise: tracking, at the front-end circuit, a current symbol position within a communication data unit, the communication data unit containing the content symbol; and determining a prefix length based on the current symbol position, wherein removing or masking the set of bits comprises: the set of bits is removed or masked based on the determined prefix length. The method may further comprise: determining, at the front-end circuit, a symbol length based on information from the signal processing circuit, wherein the symbol length represents a duration associated with the content symbol according to a current communication setting, wherein separating the content symbol comprises: a set of bits corresponding to the symbol length is reserved.

One or more embodiments provide a communication device that may include a front-end circuit and a signal processing circuit coupled to the front-end circuit. The communication device may be configured to implement one or more aspects/features of the above-described methods, or a combination thereof. The front-end circuit may be configured to: receiving a wireless signal, the wireless signal comprising a set of content symbols and a corresponding plurality of prefixes; the set of content symbols is separated based on removing or masking the corresponding plurality of prefixes. The signal processing circuit is configured to: receiving the separated content symbol set; and recovering content data based on the separated set of content symbols. The front-end circuit and the signal processing circuit are physically separate and electrically coupled to each other by a digital connection. In some embodiments, the front-end circuitry may include a radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chip; and the signal processing circuit may comprise a baseband chip. Additionally or alternatively, the digital connection may include a feedback path for conveying information from the signal processing circuit back to the front-end circuit. The signal processing circuit may be further configured to: determining information about symbol boundaries; and transmitting the information about the symbol boundary to the front-end circuit through a feedback path. And, the front-end circuitry may be configured to: a set of bits is removed based on the received information about symbol boundaries, wherein the removed set of bits corresponds to a plurality of prefixes associated with a set of content symbols.

In some embodiments, the front-end circuit may include: a down converter configured to demodulate a received wireless signal into a baseband signal; a sampling circuit coupled to the down-converter configured to sample the baseband signal; and a prefix remover coupled to the sampling circuit, configured to: symbol bits in the sampled baseband signal are separated by removing or masking prefix bits, the symbol bits corresponding to the set of content symbols, the masking prefix bits corresponding to a prefix in the received wireless signal. Additionally or alternatively, the front-end circuitry may be configured to: receiving the wireless signal, wherein the wireless signal comprises an initial set of content symbols and prefixes and a subsequent set of content symbols and prefixes, wherein the subsequent set of content symbols and prefixes comprises the separated set of content symbols; transmitting the initial set of content symbols and prefixes to the signal processing circuitry; receiving a feedback message from the signal processing circuit, wherein the feedback message is derived at least in part based on the initial set of content symbols; and separating the set of content symbols in the subsequent set of content symbols and prefixes based on removing or masking a plurality of prefixes in the subsequent set of content symbols and prefixes.

The signal processing circuit may be further configured to: receiving an initial set of content symbols and prefixes from a front-end circuit; determining information about symbol boundaries based on the received initial set of content symbols and prefixes; and sending a feedback message to the front-end circuit for removing a subsequent instance of the plurality of prefixes at the front-end circuit. The signal processing circuit may be further configured to: removing the prefixes in the initial set of content symbols and prefixes; performing a fourier transform on a set of remaining content symbols, wherein the set of remaining content symbols is from an initial set of the content symbols and prefixes after prefix removal; and performing a fourier transform directly on the subsequently received set of content symbols without performing a prefix removal process.

One or more embodiments provide a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon processor instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more aspects/features of the above-described methods, or a combination thereof. The stored processor instructions may be configured to implement the method comprising: receiving a wireless signal at the communication device, wherein the wireless signal includes content symbols and corresponding prefixes; at the front-end circuitry, separating the content symbols based on removing the corresponding prefixes; and the separated content symbols are transmitted to the signal processing circuitry without transmitting the corresponding prefixes. Additionally or alternatively, the method and/or communication device may include one or more features described herein and/or various combinations thereof.

Drawings

In order to more clearly describe the technical solution in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings are briefly described below. The figures illustrate only some aspects or embodiments of the present disclosure, from which other figures may be derived by those of ordinary skill without creative effort.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile communication device according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a detailed block diagram of downlink processing circuitry in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4A is a schematic diagram of a first example message according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4B is a schematic diagram of a second example message according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4C is a schematic diagram of data flow before and after processing according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4D is a table illustrating an example message configuration in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of an example method in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a system chip according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Technical solutions in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure are described below. A communication system includes interface circuitry configured to reduce an amount of data communicated between adjacent circuitry, e.g., between Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry (e.g., an RF chip) and data processing circuitry (e.g., a baseband chip).

Some wireless communication protocols, such as the fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard and/or the fifth generation (5G) standard, require a Cyclic Prefix (CP) before each transmitted symbol. The CP may provide a guard interval to cancel inter-symbol interference caused by the previous transmission/symbol. In other words, the CP may act as a buffer area to protect subsequent payloads or data symbols. The content of the CP may be a repetition of the symbol end portion. Thus, the transmitted message (e.g., content symbol and CP) can be linearly processed. For example, the linear convolution of the frequency selective multipath channel may be modeled as a cyclic convolution. Further, some wireless communication protocols may require different lengths of CPs depending on the position/sequence number of the symbol within the corresponding/surrounding communication unit (e.g., subframe).

To process the content/payload symbols, the CP is removed from the transmitted or received data. In conventional systems, at a front-end circuit (e.g., an RF chip), a received RF signal (e.g., a combination of CP and payload symbols) is down-converted and sampled to form a time-domain signal, and transmitted to a processing circuit (e.g., a baseband modem/chip). The processing circuitry removes one or more portions of the CP or the RF signal and processes the payload portion, for example, by converting the time domain signal of the remaining symbols to a frequency domain signal (e.g., by a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)).

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may include circuitry and/or processes to remove CPs at the front-end circuitry, thereby removing CPs from the digital signal or excluding CPs from the digital signal. Thus, the communication system may provide reduced power consumption associated with digital communication between the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry. The amount of removed data and reduced power consumption may correspond to the length or size of the CP, which may account for up to 25% of the overhead. The removed data may provide significant power savings in view of the large number of symbols being transmitted during a communication session (e.g., a streaming application and/or voice call).

In some implementations, the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry may operate according to transitions between two or more phases. For example, in an initial stage, the front-end circuitry may perform down-conversion and sampling operations to generate a first set of messages comprising: multiple CPs and one or more instances of corresponding payload symbols. The processing circuitry may receive and process the first set of messages to identify at least one symbol boundary (e.g., separation between adjacent groups of CP-payload symbol combinations). The processing circuit may communicate information about symbol boundaries to the front-end circuit as feedback during transitions between stages (e.g., during a handshake process between the front-end circuit and the processing circuit).

For messages processed at a later stage, the front-end circuitry may use symbol boundaries to identify the end of each symbol segment in the time-domain signal. The front-end circuitry may access a set of registers to identify the appropriate CP length, symbol length, and/or symbol position within the communication unit (e.g., subframe). In some implementations, during the transition, the processing circuitry may provide CP length, symbol length, and/or symbol position to the front-end circuitry. The front-end circuitry may use the symbol positions to read the appropriate CP length (e.g., the long CP length of the first symbol and/or the intermediate symbol or the normal CP length of other symbols). The front-end circuit may use the read CP length to remove or mask a corresponding CP portion within the sampled signal. The front-end circuitry may update and track the symbol positions as the corresponding symbols (e.g., without the corresponding CPs) are communicated to the processing circuitry.

Removing the CP at the front-end circuitry instead of the processing circuitry reduces the amount of data transferred to the processing circuitry. The communication device may include a digital connection/bus between the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry. As the data rate and bandwidth for wireless communications increases, so does the data rate/data volume for internal digital communications between the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry. By removing the CP at the front-end circuit, the communication device can reduce the amount of internally transmitted data without additional buffers. In some implementations, the front-end circuitry may adjust the bit rate of the internal transmission data, for example by expanding the separated bits to fill in the duration of the opening by removing the CP. Further, by removing the CP at the front-end circuit, the communication device can reduce the current/power consumed to transmit the CP. Further, by removing the CP at the front-end circuitry, the communication device may increase the throughput of the internal interface (e.g., up to 25%). Using boundary information from the processing device to identify CP locations in the digital stream and track symbol/CP length and current symbol location provides a relatively simple and fast mechanism/circuit (e.g., a set of registers, removal/masking circuits, counters, etc.) for implementing CP removal at the front-end circuitry.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the presently described technology. In other embodiments, the techniques described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features, such as specific functions or routines, have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure. Reference in the specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described is included in at least one embodiment of the described technology. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. On the other hand, such references are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that the various embodiments shown in the figures are merely illustrative representations and that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.

In the following description, for the sake of clarity, several details of structures or processes are not described, which are well known and commonly associated with communication systems and subsystems, but which may unnecessarily obscure some of the important aspects of the disclosed technology. Furthermore, while the following disclosure sets forth several embodiments of the various aspects of the disclosure, several other embodiments may have different configurations or different components than those described in this section. Thus, the disclosed technology may have other embodiments with additional elements or without several elements described below.

Many of the embodiments or aspects of the technology described below may take the form of computer or processor-executable instructions, including routines executed by a programmable computer or processor. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described techniques may be implemented on a computer or processor system other than those shown and described below. The techniques described herein may be implemented in a special purpose computer or data processor that is specially programmed, configured or constructed to perform one or more of the computer-executable instructions described below. Thus, the terms "computer" and "processor" are generally used herein to refer to any data processor. The information processed by these computers and processors may be presented on any suitable display medium, including Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). Instructions for performing a computer-executable task or processor-executable task may be stored in or on any suitable computer-readable medium including hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and firmware. The instructions may be contained in any suitable memory device including: such as a flash drive and/or other suitable medium.

The terms "coupled" and "connected," as well as derivatives thereof, are used herein to describe structural relationships between components. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. Rather, in particular embodiments, "connected" may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. Unless the context clearly defines otherwise, the term "coupled" may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct or indirect (with other intervening elements in between) contact with each other, or that two or more elements co-operate or interact with each other (e.g., in a causal relationship, such as for signaling/signal reception or for function calls), or both. The term "and/or" in this specification merely describes an association relationship between associated objects, and the term means that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B may represent the following three cases: only a is present, A, B is present, only B is present. Further, the character "/" in the present application generally indicates an or relationship between associated objects.

Is suitable for environment

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, a wireless communication system 100 may include a network device 110. Network device 110 may include circuitry configured to provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. Some examples of network devices 110 may include: a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a Node B (NB), an evolved node B (eNB or eNodeB), a next generation node B (gNB or gNode B), a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) Access Point (AP). Additional examples of network device 110 may include a relay station, an access point, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, and so forth. Network device 110 may include other wireless connection devices for a communication network, such as: global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks, code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, wideband CDMA (WCDMA) networks, LTE networks, cloud Radio Access Networks (CRAN), institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 based networks (e.g., wi-Fi networks), internet of things (IoT) networks, device-to-device (D2D) networks, next generation networks (e.g., 5G networks), future evolution Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and so forth. Alternatively, the 5G system or network may be further referred to as a New Radio (NR) system or network.

Additionally or alternatively, the wireless communication system 100 may include a terminal device 120. The terminal device 120 may be an end user device configured to facilitate wireless communications. The terminal device 120 may be configured to: wireless connection is made (via, for example, wireless channel 115) to network device 110 in accordance with one or more corresponding communication protocols/standards. The terminal device 120 may be mobile or stationary. Terminal device 120 can be an access terminal, a UE, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. Some examples of terminal device 120 may include: a cellular phone, a smart phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device connected to a wireless modem or another processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, an IoT device, a terminal device in a future 5G network, a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN, etc.

For illustrative purposes, fig. 1 shows a wireless communication system 100 including a network device 110 and a terminal device 120. However, it should be understood that the wireless communication system 100 may include additional/other devices, such as additional instances of the network device 110 and/or the terminal device 120, network controllers, mobility management entities, and the like.

Wireless communication architecture

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile communication device 200 (e.g., terminal device 120 of fig. 1, network device 110 of fig. 1, and/or portions thereof) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The mobile communication device 200 may include circuitry configured to transmit a line signal to another device. For example, the terminal device 120 (e.g., UE) may include a mobile communication device 200, the mobile communication device 200 configured to exchange wireless signals with the network device 110 and/or other wirelessly coupled devices.

The mobile communication device 200 may include an antenna group 212, the antenna group 212 including a set of transmit antennas and/or receiver antennas. Antenna group 212 may be configured to utilize one or more antennas to exchange wireless signals with corresponding devices. In some implementations, the antenna group 212 may be coupled to a filter group 214, the filter group 214 including a set of frequency-based filters. For example, the filter bank 214 may include a set of bandpass filters configured to separate a particular frequency range for which the technology, standard, and/or context associated with the communication session is to use or target.

The mobile communication device 200 may include front-end circuitry 202, such as a transceiver (e.g., a radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chip) configured to process various components of a wireless signal. For example, the front-end circuitry 202 may include an uplink module 222 (e.g., circuitry and/or functionality), the uplink module 222 configured to mix and synthesize I/Q data from baseband for a RF signal for transmission. Also, the front-end circuitry 202 may include a downlink module 224 (e.g., circuitry and/or functionality), the downlink module 224 configured to down-convert the input/received signals to complex representations (e.g., I/Q data). As described in detail below, the I/Q data may be processed/trimmed and then forwarded to processing circuitry (e.g., baseband chips) for further processing.

Front-end circuitry 202 may communicate baseband data (e.g., formatted content data before/after modulation to one or more carrier frequencies) with signal processing circuitry 204 using internal connection 210. The internal connections 210 may include data connections/buses. In some implementations, the internal connection 210 may be configured to transmit digital signals. For example, the downlink module 224 may send a down-converted version of the sampled digital stream of the wireless signal to the signal processing circuit 204. The portion of the internal connection 210 configured for downlink signal processing may include a feedback path for conveying information from the signal processing circuit 204 back to the front-end circuit 202. In addition, the signal processing circuit 204 may send digital baseband data to the uplink module 222 for up-conversion and digital-to-analog (D/a) conversion for wireless transmission. The signal processing circuit 204 may be implemented as a physically separate circuit (e.g., a separate semiconductor chip).

The signal processing circuitry 204 (e.g., baseband modem/baseband chip) may be configured to process/analyze baseband data with respect to the transmitted content/intended content. For example, the signal processing circuitry 204 may analyze the received wireless signal and remove characteristics (aspects)/effects (e.g., inter-symbol interference, inter-carrier interference, inter-device interference, doppler, multipath interference, fading, etc.) of the wireless channel 115 of fig. 1 and/or one device internal noise from the received wireless signal to recover the transmitted data. For example, the received wireless signal may be expressed as:

y=hx+n formula (1).

The received wireless signal may be denoted as 'Y', and the initially transmitted wireless signal may be denoted as 'X'. The noise introduced into the received wireless signal may be denoted as 'N'. The wireless channel 115 or its effect on the transmitted signal may be denoted as 'H'. The signal processing circuit 204 may be configured to recover 'X' from 'Y'. The signal processing circuitry 204 may also include circuitry and/or functionality configured to invert transmission processing, e.g., constellation mapping, interleaving, encoding, etc., to recover desired content. For transmission, the signal processing circuit 204 may perform transmission formatting on content data that is desired to be transmitted.

CP removal

Fig. 3 is a detailed block diagram of downlink processing circuitry (e.g., corresponding portions of front-end circuitry 202 of fig. 2, such as downlink module 224, and/or signal processing circuitry 204 of fig. 2) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In some implementations, the downlink module 224 may include a down-converter 302 and a sampling circuit 304. The down-converter 302 may be configured to demodulate a received wireless signal from a carrier frequency to baseband. Sampling circuit 304 (e.g., an analog-to-digital (a/D) converter) may process the down-converted signal/baseband signal to generate a time-domain digital signal for further processing by signal processing circuit 204.

In some implementations, the wireless communication system 100 of fig. 1 may generate the transmission message according to a transmission scheme (e.g., an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme) (via, for example, the transceiver 216). For example, transceiver 216 may map a sequence of transmission bits to corresponding symbols of an OFDM symbol alphabet. The mapped symbols may be used to generate and transmit a wireless signal ('X') that represents a transmission bit sequence. The wireless communication system 100 may include a CP located before each symbol or between each symbol.

Some wireless communication protocols (e.g., the 4G LTE standard and/or the 5G standard) require a CP before each transmitted symbol. The CP may include a copy of the end portion of the symbol that may be used to reduce or eliminate inter-symbol interference and/or enable linear processing (e.g., by using a circular convolution function).

The downlink module 224 may generate a time-domain digital signal that includes at least initially a digital representation of the symbol and the corresponding CP. For example, the combination of down-converter 302 and sampling circuit 304 may generate a time-domain digital signal including both symbols and CPs, which may be transmitted as a first set of messages 362 to signal processing circuit 204 during an initial phase, e.g., a first set of symbols transmitted during a newly established communication session or after a rate adjustment or synchronization adjustment.

The signal processing circuitry 204 may process the first set of messages 362 using circuitry configured to: (1) Processing the content of the first set of messages 362 and (2) coordinating the removal of CPs for subsequent messages. For example, the signal processing circuit 204 may include a baseband (BB) boundary identifier 352, the baseband boundary identifier 352 configured to identify a time boundary between adjacent symbols. In other words, BB boundary identifier 352 may identify the time at which the CP starts before the corresponding symbol and/or the time at which the preceding/preceding symbol ends. In some implementations, the BB boundary identifier 352 can identify the boundary based on detecting a synchronization signal (e.g., a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and/or a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS)) in the first set of messages 362. BB boundary identifier 352 may use signal/pattern detection circuitry and/or functionality, such as matched filters.

The signal processing circuit 204 may locally include a BB-CP remover 354, the BB-CP remover 354 being configured to remove CPs from the first message set 362. Thus, BB-CP remover 354 may separate out the symbols for subsequent processing by downstream module 358. The downstream module 358 may reverse the transport format, e.g., by interleaving (interleaving), decoding, etc., and recover the content data that the sending device originally targeted.

The signal processing circuit 204 may also include a BB management module 356, the BB management module 356 being configured to perform a transition from an initial stage, where the signal processing circuit 204 removes the CP, to a subsequent stage, where the front-end circuit 202 removes the CP. BB management module 356 may include circuitry and/or functionality configured to perform a handshake protocol with front-end circuitry 202 to effect phase transitions. For example, BB management module 356 may provide feedback message 364 to downlink module 224 via feedback path 360, feedback message 364 including boundary information (e.g., start time and frequency/rate) and/or boundary signals (e.g., clock signals/strobe signals). In addition, BB management module 356 may include context information/progress information for the communication in feedback message 364. In some implementations, BB management module 356 can use feedback message 364 to provide downlink module 224 with the sequence or position of the currently processed symbol within the surrounding communication unit (e.g., subframe). BB management module 356 can also use feedback message 364 to provide CP length and/or symbol length (e.g., duration and/or number of samples) based on the communication rate/setting of the session.

The downlink module 224 may include circuitry and/or functionality configured to remove CPs during subsequent phases. In some implementations, the downlink module 224 can include an RF-boundary identifier 312. The RF-boundary identifier 312 may include circuitry and/or functionality configured to identify the symbol boundary 332 at the downlink module 224 based on the feedback message 364. In some implementations, the RF-boundary identifier 312 may include gating circuitry configured to: based on the boundary information (e.g., start time and frequency/rate), an internal strobe signal is generated. Alternatively or additionally, RF-boundary identifier 312 may include interface circuitry configured to receive the gating signal in feedback message 364 as symbol boundary 332.

The downlink module 224 may include a tracking circuit 314, which tracking circuit 314 may include circuitry and/or functionality configured to read the context information for CP removal. For example, downlink module 224 may include a set of registers configured to store one or more CP length data (e.g., first length 334 and/or second length 336), symbol length 338, symbol position 340, or a combination thereof. In some implementations, during phase transitions, registers may be programmed by the signal processing circuit 204. In other embodiments, the registers may be preloaded with predetermined values, and tracking circuit 314 may access the appropriate registers based on the selection data (e.g., a representation of the session settings, such as the data rate) in feedback message 364.

As an illustrative example, during phase transition, symbol counter 316 may set symbol position 340 based on feedback message 364. Thus, symbol counter 316 may update/increment (increment) symbol position 340 using symbol boundary 332 of the subsequent portion of the message. Tracking circuit 314 may use the real-time tracked symbol positions 340 to selectively read the appropriate CP length. For example, when the symbol position 340 corresponds to one or more predetermined positions (e.g., a first position and/or an intermediate position) within a communication unit (e.g., a subframe), the tracking circuit 314 may read the first length 334 (e.g., representing a long CP). In addition, the tracking circuit 314 may read the second length 336 when the symbol position 340 corresponds to another position. The tracking circuit 314 may further read a symbol length 338 corresponding to the communication setting.

The downlink module 224 may include an RF-CP remover 318, the RF-CP remover 318 configured to remove CPs from the digitized signal at the front-end circuit 202. RF-CP remover 318 may use the read/track values (such as CP length and/or symbol length 338) to identify bits in the digitized signal that correspond to the CP. RF-CP remover 318 may remove or mask the identified bits corresponding to the CP (e.g., the overloaded portion). In some implementations, RF-CP remover 318 may additionally or alternatively remove portions of the symbol that have been repeated in the CP. Thus, RF-CP remover 318 may separate out bits corresponding to symbols (e.g., payload/content portions).

In some implementations, the downlink module 224 (via, for example, the RF-CP remover 318) may update the timing, spacing, and/or permutation of the remaining bits. For example, the downlink module 224 may combine or multiplex the separated symbol bits to increase overall data throughput. Also, the downlink module 224 may spread the separated symbol bits over time, e.g., between symbol boundaries 332 and over a duration/timing corresponding to the removed CP.

The downlink module 224 may include an RF management module 320 configured to supervise and perform phase operations and transitions between phases. RF management module 320 may interact with BB management module 356 to supervise and perform phase operations/phase transitions. For example, RF management module 320 may receive feedback message 364 and initiate a transition between phases. RF management module 320 may load input values such as symbol boundary information, symbol length 338, CP length, and/or symbol position 340 into corresponding registers. In response to receiving feedback message 364, RF management module 320 may further activate RF boundary identifier 312, tracking circuit 314, and/or RF-CP remover 318 to remove the CP. In some implementations, the RF management module 320 may track and control the phase state 342. For example, RF management module 320 may set phase state 342 to represent an initial phase at the beginning of a communication session. RF management module 320 may update stage state 342 to represent a subsequent stage based on the transition process/handshake process. In some implementations, the RF management module 320 can update the phase state 342 based on a predetermined period of time after the feedback message 364 is first received, the predetermined feedback content is received, and/or the content targeted in the feedback message 364. Thus, the downlink module 224 may switch from outputting the first set of messages 362 to outputting the second set of messages 366, the second set of messages 366 including separated sign bits without CP bits.

Message format

Fig. 4A is a schematic diagram of a first example message (e.g., a message/symbol unit in a first message set 362) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the first message set 362 may include the CP 402 and the content 404.CP 402 may precede corresponding content 404, which corresponding content 404 may include a symbol portion 412 and/or a duplicate CP portion 414.

Fig. 4B is a schematic diagram of a second example message (e.g., a message/symbol unit in a second message set 366) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As described above, the front-end circuit 202 may remove the CP 402 from the input/received message. Thus, the second message set 366 may separate out the symbol portion 412 (e.g., a set of bits corresponding to content/OFDM symbols) and remove the CP 402 and/or duplicate CP portion 414.

Fig. 4C is a schematic diagram of data flow before and after processing according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The down converter 302 shown in fig. 3 and/or the sampling circuit 304 shown in fig. 3 may generate a first data stream 422, the first data stream 422 comprising a time-domain bit stream representing the transmitted baseband message. The first data stream may correspond to a subsequently transmitted instance in the first set of messages 362 shown in fig. 3. In other words, the first data stream 422 may include the CP 402 and the content 404 of each of the first message sets 362. The downlink module 224 shown in fig. 2 may transmit the first data stream 422 to the signal processing circuit 204 shown in fig. 2 until, at the downlink module 224, the symbol boundary 332 is identified and the CP 402 is removed.

As described above, at the downlink module 224, the downlink module 224 may remove the CP 402 and/or the duplicate CP portion 414. Thus, the downlink module 224 may transmit a second data stream 424, the second data stream 424 comprising a time-domain bit stream representing the separated content portions within the transmitted baseband message. In other words, the second data stream 424 may include a subsequent transmission instance of the symbol 412 shown in fig. 4A. The second data stream 424 may be processed according to the symbol boundaries 332. Thus, the second data stream 424 may be aligned in time with the symbol boundary 332.

Fig. 4D is a table 450 illustrating an example message configuration (e.g., CP configuration) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Table 450 may illustrate example configurations corresponding to different CP lengths and/or different subcarrier spacings (SCS) associated with a wireless communication protocol. For example, each row of table 450 may represent a unique combination of values/settings of channel bandwidth, SCS, frequency band (FR), normal CP length, and/or long CP length. Table 450 further shows the amount of resources (e.g., the percentage of FFT size) required to process the corresponding CP length. In some implementations, the resources (e.g., overhead) required to process the CP may correspond to 7% to 25% of the total resources. Thus, by removing CP 402 at downlink module 224, signal processing circuit 200 shown in fig. 2 may reduce a corresponding amount of processing resources/overhead.

Control flow

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of an example method 500 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be used to implement a bus traffic reduction mechanism. The method 500 may be used to operate the terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1, the network device 110 shown in fig. 1, the front-end circuit 202 shown in fig. 2, the signal processing circuit 204 shown in fig. 2, one or more portions thereof, or a combination thereof.

At block 502, the front-end circuitry 202 may receive a wireless signal. For example, antenna group 212 may receive a wireless signal ('Y') corresponding to a signal ('X') transmitted by a peer device. The received wireless signal may correspond to a wireless communication session (e.g., an initial portion of a wireless communication session) between the sending device and the receiving device. Thus, the front-end circuitry 202 may receive a wireless signal that includes a set of content symbols and a corresponding set of prefixes. For example, front-end circuitry 202 may receive a set of content symbols and prefixes corresponding to an initial portion of a communication session.

At block 504, the front-end circuitry 202 may convert the initially received wireless signal, or portion thereof, to a baseband format. For example, the down converter 302 shown in fig. 3 may down convert a received wireless signal, such as by demodulating the wireless signal according to one or more predetermined signals/frequencies. In addition, the sampling circuit 304 shown in fig. 3 may sample the down-conversion result of the wireless signal according to a predetermined sampling rate. Thus, the downlink module 224 may generate a baseband bit stream (e.g., a time domain bit stream) that corresponds to the down-conversion and sampling results of the wireless signal.

At block 506, the front-end circuitry 202 may transmit the first set of messages 362 (e.g., the converted baseband signals) of fig. 3 to the signal processing circuitry 204. The front-end circuitry 202 may send a first set of messages 362 resulting from the conversion to the signal processing circuitry 204. The first set of messages 362 may correspond to an initial phase of an operation and/or communication session.

At block 552, the signal processing circuitry 204 may identify boundaries associated with respective symbols within the baseband signal. The signal processing circuit 204 may receive a first set of messages 362 from the front-end circuit 202. Signal processing circuitry 204 may determine one or more timing details within first message set 362 associated with CP 402 shown in fig. 4. For example, as described above, the BB boundary identifier 352 shown in fig. 3 may determine timing information based on detecting a synchronization signal (via, for example, a signal/pattern detection circuit/function, e.g., a matched filter).

At block 554, the signal processing circuit 204 may process the received baseband signal. The signal processing circuitry 204 may process the first set of messages 362 to recover the content data (e.g., the transmitted signal 'X' and/or the original content data). As an illustrative example, BB-CP remover 354 shown in fig. 3 may remove CP 402 from first message set 362 to separate content portion 404 and/or payload symbols 412). The downstream module 358 of fig. 3 may perform a fourier transform (e.g., FFT) on the separated results (e.g., the content portion 404 and/or the payload symbols 412).

At block 508, the communication device (e.g., terminal device 120) may transition across phases (e.g., from an initial phase to a subsequent phase). For example, front-end circuitry 202 and signal processing circuitry 204 may interact with each other (e.g., handshake processing) to effect the conversion. As described above, signal processing circuitry 204 may send feedback message 364 shown in fig. 3 to front-end circuitry 202, where feedback message 364 represents one or more timing details (e.g., timing of symbol boundaries, a set of prefix lengths, current symbol positions, symbol lengths, or a combination thereof) associated with CP 402. Thus, front-end circuitry 202 may receive information about symbol boundaries and transition from an initial stage to a subsequent stage based on feedback message 364. Front-end circuitry 202 may remove CP 402 from the received wireless signal at a later stage. The signal processing circuit 404 also transitions to a subsequent stage and directly processes subsequently received signals (e.g., without removing the CP 402 at the signal processing circuit 404).

At block 510, the communication device may set an initial state associated with the phase-based operation. For example, the front-end circuit 202 may configure or set the tracking circuit 314 shown in fig. 3 to store the first length 334 shown in fig. 3, the second length 336 shown in fig. 3, the symbol length 338 shown in fig. 3, the current symbol position 340 shown in fig. 3, or a combination thereof. In addition, as described above, the front-end circuitry 202 may determine the symbol boundary 332 shown in fig. 3 locally.

At block 514, the front-end circuitry 202 may convert the subsequently received wireless signal or portions of the signal. As described above in block 502, the front-end circuitry 202 may receive wireless signals. As described above in block 504, the front-end circuitry 202 may continue to convert wireless signals received after the above-described conversion. For example, front-end circuitry 202 may down-convert subsequently received symbols and CPs to baseband. Also, the front-end circuitry 202 may sample the down-converted signal to generate a baseband bit stream (e.g., a time-domain bit stream).

At block 516, the front-end circuitry 202 may identify symbol boundaries of the baseband bit stream. Front-end circuitry 202 may identify symbol boundaries based on, for example, strobe signals or timing signals corresponding to symbol boundaries 332. Thus, the front-end circuitry 202 may identify partitions (partitions) in the baseband bit stream to determine different symbol-CP packets (symbol-CP packets) within the wireless signal. In other words, front-end circuitry 202 may identify bit packets, each representing a set of content portions 404 and CPs 402.

At decision block 518, front-end circuit 202 may determine whether the currently processed symbol corresponds to a long CP. For example, tracking circuit 314 may determine and track symbol position 340. Tracking circuit 314 and/or RF-CP remover 318 shown in fig. 3 may read the appropriate CP length based on current symbol position 340. In some implementations, as shown in block 520, the tracking circuit 314 may read the first length 334 when the current symbol position 340 indicates one or more predetermined positions (e.g., a first symbol position and/or an intermediate symbol position within each subframe). As indicated at block 522, the tracking circuit 314 may read the second length 336 for other locations.

At block 524, front-end circuit 202 may remove CP 402 from the subsequently received wireless signal. As an illustrative example, RF-CP remover 318 and/or tracking circuit 314 may determine symbol length 338, for example, by accessing a corresponding register. RF-CP remover 318 may remove CP 402 based on CP length and/or symbol length 338. The RF-CP remover 318 may remove or mask bits that begin later by a length of a selected one of the first length 334 or the second length 336. RF-CP remover 318 may also reserve and separate bits beginning at or after the end of the CP length and lasting a symbol length 338, e.g., bits that make up or represent CP 402. Thus, RF-CP remover 318 may separate out bits that make up or represent content portion 404 and/or payload symbol 412.

At block 526, the front-end circuitry 202 may transmit the second set of messages 366 shown in fig. 3 (e.g., the content portion 404 shown in fig. 4 and/or the payload symbols 412 shown in fig. 4 that are separated after the CP 402 is removed). Based on separating the content portion 404 and/or the payload symbols 412 from within the baseband digital bit stream, the front end circuitry 202 may generate a second set of messages 366. Front-end circuitry 202 may send second message set 366 (e.g., a set of bits representing separated content symbols without corresponding CP 402) to signal processing circuitry 404. The front-end circuitry 202 may transmit to the signal processing circuitry 404 via a digital bus (e.g., the internal bus 210 shown in fig. 2).

At block 556, the signal processing circuitry 204 may process the second set of messages 336. The signal processing circuitry 204 may receive the second set of messages 336 (e.g., the separated content symbols). As described above in block 554, signal processing circuitry 204 may process second set of messages 336. For example, based on the separated set of content symbols, the signal processing circuitry 204 may recover the content data, e.g., based on performing a fourier transform.

At block 528, the front-end circuitry 202 may update the symbol position (current symbol position 340). The symbol counter 316 may track the current symbol position 340 within a communication data unit (e.g., subframe) that includes content symbols that are processed and sent to the signal processing circuitry 204. For example, as each symbol is processed and communicated to signal processing circuitry 204, symbol counter 316 may track current symbol position 340 based on incrementing current symbol position 340.

At decision block 558, the signal processing circuit 204 may determine whether the processed message includes a flag or trigger (flag or trigger) to adjust timing associated with the wireless communication signal. When the content does not indicate a timing adjustment flag or trigger, the signal processing circuit 204 may continue to process the input signal, as indicated by the feedback loop to block 556. In addition, the signal processing circuit 204 may process the input signal without sending any adjustment indications to the front-end circuit 202. Accordingly, at decision block 530, the front-end circuit 202 may determine that no timing adjustment feedback was received from the signal processing circuit 204. Thus, as represented by the feedback loop to block 514, the front-end circuitry 202 may continue to convert the received wireless signal, remove the CP 402, and send the separated symbol or content portion to the signal processing circuitry 200.

When the content indicates a timing adjustment flag or trigger, the signal processing circuit 204 may notify the front-end circuit 202 of the timing adjustment, as indicated in block 560. Thus, at decision block 530, the front-end circuit 202 may determine that timing adjustment feedback has been received. In response to this determination, the front-end circuitry 202 may perform a transition between stages to achieve a new communication rate. Further, after notification, signal processing circuitry 204 may further identify a new symbol boundary based on the timing adjustment, as shown by the feedback loop to block 552. Based on the updated instance of the boundary, the front-end circuitry 202 and the signal processing circuitry 204 may perform transitions between stages as described above to perform adjustment timing for subsequently arriving signals.

Example devices and systems

Fig. 6-8 illustrate example devices and systems that include or incorporate a variable complexity detector (e.g., front-end circuitry 202 shown in fig. 2 and/or signal processing circuitry 204 shown in fig. 2).

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 600 (e.g., an example of terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 6, the terminal device 600 includes a processing unit 610 (e.g., a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processor (GPU), etc., serving as the front-end circuitry 202, the signal processing circuitry 204, and/or portions thereof) and a memory 620. The processing unit 610 may be configured to implement instructions corresponding to the method 500 of fig. 5 and/or other aspects of the embodiments described above.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a system chip 700 (e.g., components within terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1 and/or components within network device 110 shown in fig. 1) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The system chip 700 in fig. 7 includes an input interface 701, an output interface 702, a processor 703 and a memory 704 (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable medium) connectable through an internal communication connection, wherein the processor 703 is configured to execute code in the memory 704. Memory 704 may include code corresponding to method 500 of fig. 5 and/or other aspects of the embodiments described above. Thus, the processor 703 may perform the method 500 and/or other aspects of the above-described embodiments.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 (e.g., an example of the terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1 and/or an example of the network device 110 shown in fig. 1) in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Communication device 800 may include a processor 810 and a memory 820. The memory 820 may store program codes, and the processor 810 may execute the program codes stored in the memory 820. Memory 820 may include code corresponding to method 500 of fig. 5 and/or other aspects of the embodiments described above. Accordingly, processor 810 may implement method 500 and/or other aspects of the above-described embodiments.

Optionally, the communication device 800 may include a transceiver 830 (e.g., an example of the front-end circuitry 202 shown in fig. 2, an example of the signal processing circuitry 204 shown in fig. 2, and/or an example of one or more portions thereof). Transceiver 830 may be configured to perform method 600 (via, for example, hardware circuitry, software code from memory 820, and/or firmware) and/or other aspects of the above-described embodiments.

It should be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the present technology may be an integrated circuit chip and have signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps in the above method may be implemented by using instructions in the form of integrated logic circuits or software in hardware in a processor. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a DSP, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or another programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, and discrete hardware components. The methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present technology may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may alternatively be any conventional processor or the like. The steps in the methods disclosed with reference to embodiments of the present technology may be performed or accomplished directly by a decoding processor implemented as hardware, or by using a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may be located in random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, or another well-established storage medium in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory and the processor reads the information in the memory and performs the steps of the method described above in conjunction with the hardware in the memory.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present technology may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or the memory may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM) and acts as external cache memory. For purposes of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM may be used, and are, for example, static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (ESDRAM), synchronous Link Dynamic Random Access Memory (SLDRAM), and direct bus memory module (Rambus) random access memory (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memories in the systems and methods described herein are intended to comprise, without being limited to, these memories and any other suitable types of memories.

Feedback message 364, RF-boundary identifier 312, tracking circuit 314 (e.g., registers), symbol counter 316, RF-CP remover 318, corresponding functions, and/or combinations thereof enable actual removal of CP 402 at front-end circuit 202. Based on removing CP 402 at front-end circuit 202, the communication device may reduce data communicated between front-end circuit 202 and signal processing circuit 204, increase throughput between circuits, reduce power/current consumption associated with internal communications, and/or reduce error rates by providing longer signal transition durations.

Conclusion(s)

The above detailed description of examples of the disclosed technology is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed technology to the precise form disclosed above. Although specific examples of the disclosed technology are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the described technology, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps or use systems having blocks in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative embodiments or sub-combinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, although the processes or steps are shown as being performed in series in time, the processes or steps may instead be performed or implemented in parallel, or may be performed at a different time. Furthermore, any particular numbers mentioned herein are examples only; alternative embodiments may use different values or ranges.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosed technology in light of the above detailed description. While certain examples of the disclosed technology, as well as the best mode contemplated, are described in detail, no matter how detailed the foregoing description appears in this specification, the disclosed technology can be practiced in many ways. The details of the system may vary considerably in its specific embodiments, while still being encompassed by the disclosed techniques. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosed technology should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the disclosed technology with which that terminology is associated. The application, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. In general, terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosed technology to the specific examples disclosed in the specification unless the above detailed description section explicitly defines such terms.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technology solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functionality for each particular application, but such implementation is not intended to be limiting.

Although certain aspects of the application are presented in certain claim forms below, applicants contemplate the various aspects of the application in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, the applicants reserve the right to present additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claims in the present application or in a subsequent application.

Claims

1. A method for operating a communication device comprising a front-end circuit communicatively coupled to a signal processing circuit, the method comprising:

receiving a wireless signal at the communication device, wherein the wireless signal includes content symbols and corresponding prefixes;

at the front-end circuitry, separating the content symbols based on removing the corresponding prefixes; and

transmitting the separated content symbols to the signal processing circuitry without transmitting the corresponding prefixes;

the method further comprises the steps of:

in an initial stage, sending a first message set from the front-end circuit to the signal processing circuit, wherein the first message set includes a first set of content symbols and a corresponding plurality of prefixes;

transitioning from the initial stage to a subsequent stage based on a feedback message from the signal processing circuit, wherein the feedback message represents one or more timing details associated with the plurality of prefixes; and is also provided with

Wherein:

separating the content symbols and transmitting the separated content symbols are performed during the subsequent stage; and

the separated content symbols include a second set of content symbols following the first set of content symbols.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the separated content symbols comprises: a set of bits representing the content symbols is sent over a digital connection to the signal processing circuit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the front-end circuitry comprises a radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chip and the signal processing circuitry comprises a baseband chip.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

down-converting, at the front-end circuit, the received wireless signal;

generating, at the front-end circuit, a baseband bit stream based on sampling the down-converted wireless signal; and is also provided with

Wherein:

separating the content symbols includes: bits in the bitstream are removed or intercepted, wherein the removed or intercepted bits correspond to the prefix.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the separated content symbols at the signal processing circuit; and

At the signal processing circuit, a fourier transform is performed on the separated content symbols.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the first set of messages at the signal processing circuit;

determining, at the signal processing circuitry, one or more timing details associated with the plurality of prefixes based on the first set of messages; and

the feedback message is sent to the front-end circuit, wherein the feedback message includes a timing of symbol boundaries, a set of prefix lengths, a current symbol position, a symbol length, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information about symbol boundaries within the wireless signal from the signal processing circuit; and is also provided with

Wherein:

separating the content symbols includes: a set of bits coinciding with and/or immediately following the symbol boundary is removed or masked.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

tracking, at the front-end circuit, a current symbol position within a communication data unit, the communication data unit containing the content symbol;

determining a prefix length based on the current symbol position; and is also provided with

Wherein:

removing or masking the set of bits includes: the set of bits is removed or masked based on the determined prefix length.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining, at the front-end circuit, a symbol length based on information from the signal processing circuit, wherein the symbol length represents a duration associated with the content symbol according to a current communication setting; and is also provided with

Wherein:

separating the content symbols includes: a set of bits corresponding to the symbol length is reserved.

10. A communication device, comprising:

front-end circuitry configured to:

receiving a wireless signal, the wireless signal comprising a set of content symbols and a corresponding plurality of prefixes;

separating the set of content symbols based on removing or masking the corresponding plurality of prefixes; and

a signal processing circuit coupled to the front-end circuit, configured to:

receiving the separated content symbol set; and

recovering content data based on the separated set of content symbols;

the front-end circuitry is configured to send, in an initial stage, a first set of messages to the signal processing circuitry, wherein the first set of messages includes a first set of content symbols and a corresponding plurality of prefixes; transitioning from the initial stage to a subsequent stage based on a feedback message from the signal processing circuit, wherein the feedback message represents one or more timing details associated with the plurality of prefixes; and wherein: separating the content symbols and transmitting the separated content symbols are performed during the subsequent stage; and the separated content symbols include a second set of content symbols following the first set of content symbols.

11. The communication device of claim 10, wherein the front-end circuit and the signal processing circuit are physically separate and electrically coupled to each other by a digital connection.

12. The communication device of claim 11, wherein:

the front-end circuit includes a radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chip; and

the signal processing circuit includes a baseband chip.

13. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the digital connection includes a feedback path for communicating information from the signal processing circuit back to the front-end circuit.

14. The communication device of claim 13, wherein:

the signal processing circuit is configured to:

determining information about symbol boundaries;

transmitting the information about the symbol boundary to a front-end circuit through a feedback path; and

the front-end circuit is configured to: a set of bits is removed based on the received information about symbol boundaries, wherein the removed set of bits corresponds to a plurality of prefixes associated with a set of content symbols.

15. The communication device of claim 10, wherein the front-end circuit comprises:

a down converter configured to demodulate a received wireless signal into a baseband signal;

A sampling circuit coupled to the down-converter configured to sample the baseband signal; and

a prefix remover coupled to the sampling circuit, configured to: symbol bits in the sampled baseband signal are separated by removing or masking prefix bits, the symbol bits corresponding to the set of content symbols, the masking prefix bits corresponding to a prefix in the received wireless signal.

16. The communication device of claim 10, wherein the front-end circuit is configured to:

receiving the wireless signal, wherein the wireless signal comprises an initial set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes and a subsequent set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes, and the subsequent set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes comprises the separated content symbol set;

transmitting the initial set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes to the signal processing circuitry;

receiving a feedback message from the signal processing circuit, wherein the feedback message is derived at least in part based on the initial set; and

the set of content symbols is separated in the subsequent set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes based on removing or masking a plurality of prefixes in the subsequent set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes.

17. The communication device of claim 10, wherein the signal processing circuit is configured to:

receiving an initial set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes from a front-end circuit;

determining information about symbol boundaries based on the received content symbols and the initial set of corresponding prefixes; and

a feedback message is sent to the front-end circuit for removing a subsequent instance of the plurality of prefixes at the front-end circuit.

18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the signal processing circuit is configured to:

removing the prefixes in the initial set of content symbols and corresponding prefixes;

performing a fourier transform on a set of remaining content symbols, wherein the set of remaining content symbols is from an initial set of the content symbols and corresponding prefixes after the prefixes are removed; and

the fourier transform is directly performed on the subsequently received set of content symbols without performing a prefix removal process.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

Receiving a wireless signal at a communication device, wherein the wireless signal includes content symbols and corresponding prefixes;

transmitting the separated content symbols to a signal processing circuit without transmitting the corresponding prefixes;

the method further comprises the steps of:

Wherein: