Methods, devices and systems for receiving and decoding a signal in the presence of noise using slices and warping

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a signal, the signal encoding a data packet;

sampling the signal to generate sampled values;

generating a slice record comprising a plurality of slices from the sampled values by correlating the sampled values with first and second reference templates, the first reference template comprising a first reference function and the second reference template comprising a second reference function in quadrature with the first reference function;

cross-correlating the slice record with a stored template to generate cross-correlation terms; and

determining when a magnitude of the cross-correlation terms exceeds a predetermined threshold for a width of the stored template.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined threshold is a predetermined noise threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored template comprises a slice record of a preamble of the data packet.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first reference function comprises a cosine function and wherein the second reference function comprises a sine function.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a carrier frequency of the received signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining comprises:

warping at least some of the plurality of slices by a frequency offset, and

generating a filter from the warped slices.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising determining whether the carrier frequency is within a pass-band of the generated filter.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein warping and generating comprise shifting a center frequency of the generated filter without re-acquiring or re-sampling the signal.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising discarding the sampled values of the received signal after generating the slice record.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving a signal;

sampling the signal to generate sampled values;

correlating the sampled values with predetermined first and second templates of values obtained at a first frequency to generate a plurality of slices at the first frequency;

transforming at least some of the generated plurality of slices at the first frequency to slices at a second frequency that is different from the first frequency;

generating a first filter from the slices at the second frequency;

transforming at least some of the generated plurality of slices at the first frequency to slices at a third frequency that is different from the first and second frequencies, and

generating a second filter from the slices at the third frequency.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein transforming and generating are carried out from the generated plurality of slices, without re-acquiring or re-sampling the signal.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising discarding the generated sampled values of the received signal after generating the plurality of slices at the first frequency.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising detecting a first carrier frequency within a pass-band of the first filter and detecting a second carrier frequency within a pass-band of the second filter.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving a signal, the signal encoding a data packet at a first frequency;

quantizing the received signal to generate sampled values that are above or below a predetermined noise threshold;

correlating the sampled values with first and second templates of values obtained at a second frequency that is different from the first frequency to generate a plurality of slices at the second frequency, each of the slices comprising a pair of values;

transforming at least some of the plurality of slices at the second frequency to slices at the second frequency plus or minus an offset, and

generating a filter having a center frequency at the second frequency plus or minus the offset by combining the transformed slices.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein quantizing comprises using a 1-bit analog-to digital converter to generate the sampled values.