Scalable mapping with integrated summing of samples for multiple streams in a radio interface frame

1. An apparatus comprising:

a first circuit configured to buffer a plurality of antenna carrier sample streams in a buffer cluster and associate each buffer of said buffer cluster with a unique value;

a second circuit coupled to said first circuit and configured to generate message data through pipelined processing and mapping of said plurality of antenna carrier samples; and

a third circuit coupled to said second circuit and configured to generate a master frame in response to the processed and mapped message data.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a fourth circuit configured to transmit said master frame serially.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said pipelined processing comprises summing said plurality of said antenna carrier samples.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said plurality of said antenna carrier samples summed is determined based on comparing an index value and a modulo value associated with each antenna carrier sample to a message slot count.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the pipelined processing of the second circuit is enabled when a match is detected between said index value, said modulo value and said message slot count.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the apparatus is configured to bypass the pipelined processing of the second circuit when only one antenna carrier sample stream of the plurality of antenna carrier sample streams is in a slot associated with the message slot counter.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , said buffer cluster includes a plurality of stream first-in first-out (FIFO) clusters, each stream FIFO cluster of said plurality of stream FIFO clusters receiving a number of said plurality of antenna carrier streams.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein each of said stream FIFO clusters comprises a plurality of first-in first-out (FIFO) buffers, each FIFO buffer associated with a unique index and modulo value.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said third circuit further comprises:

an empty slot data buffer (ESDB);

an empty slot pointer buffer (ESPB); and

a master frame data buffer (MFDB) coupled to said ESDB and said ESPB and configured to combine processed and unprocessed samples from the second circuit to form said master frame.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apparatus is part of a base transceiver station architecture.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apparatus is fabricated as one or more integrated circuits used in a radio interface between a radio frequency (RF) module and a base band (BB) module.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a first circuit configured to buffer a plurality of antenna carrier sample streams;

a second circuit configured to generate message data through pipelined processing and mapping of said plurality of antenna carrier sample; and

a third circuit coupled to said second circuit and configured to generate a master frame in response to the processed and mapped message data, said third circuit comprising:

an empty slot data buffer (ESDB);

an empty slot pointer buffer (ESPB); and

a master frame data buffer (MFDB) coupled to said ESDB and said ESPB and configured to combine processed and unprocessed samples from the second circuit to form said master frame.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , said first circuit comprises a plurality of stream first-in first-out (FIFO) clusters, each cluster of said plurality of stream FIFO clusters receiving a number of said plurality of antenna carrier streams.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein each cluster of said stream FIFO clusters comprises a plurality of first-in first-out (FIFO) buffers, each FIFO buffer of the plurality of FIFO buffers associated with a unique index and modulo value.

15. A method of processing and mapping messages in radio interface frames comprising the steps of:

buffering a plurality of antenna carrier sample streams;

comparing an index value and a modulo value associated with each antenna carrier sample with a message slot count of a message slot counter;

generating message data through processing and mapping of said antenna carrier samples, wherein said processing and mapping comprises pipelined processing when a match is detected between said index value and said modulo value associated with each antenna carrier sample and said message slot count; and

generating a master frame in response to the processed, mapped and conditionally pipeline processed message data.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein said pipelined processing comprises summing said plurality of antenna carrier samples.

17. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising:

bypassing said pipelined processing when only one antenna carrier sample is in a slot of a message slot counter associated with the message slot count.

18. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising:

writing an antenna carrier sample or an empty slot message to a slot in a master frame buffer during each cycle of the message slot counter.

19. The method according to claim 18 , further comprising:

replacing each empty slot message in said master frame buffer with a result of processing a number of corresponding antenna carrier samples.

20. The method according to claim 15 , wherein buffering the plurality of antenna carrier sample streams includes receiving said plurality of antenna carrier streams in a plurality of stream first-in first-out (FIFO) clusters, wherein each of said stream FIFO clusters comprises a plurality of first-in first-out (FIFO) buffers, and wherein each FIFO buffer is associated with a unique index value and unique modulo value.