Method and apparatus for dynamically assigning master/slave roles within a distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus

1. A wireless receiver for a distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus; the wireless receiver comprising:

a pre-combining component arranged to receive a radio frequency, RF, signal from an antenna and to recover and output an information signal contained within the received RF signal, and

a combined-signal component arranged to, when the wireless receiver is configured to operate in a master receiver role, receive the recovered information signal output by the pre-combining component of the wireless receiver and at least one further recovered information signal from at least one further wireless receiver, and to perform diversity combining of the recovered information signals to obtain and output an enhanced information signal;

wherein the wireless receiver further comprises a monitoring component arranged to:

receive intra-packet channel reliability parameters for the wireless receiver and for the at least one further wireless receiver, wherein the at least one further wireless receiver is independent of the wireless receiver and coupled to the wireless receiver via a bi-directional communication link,

determine whether to assign a new master receiver for the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus based on the received intra-packet reliability parameters, and

if it is determined to assign a new master receiver, dynamically re-assign the master receiver within the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus.

2. The wireless receiver of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is arranged to determine whether to assign a new master receiver for the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus based on an absolute difference between an intra-packet channel reliability parameter for a current master receiver and an intra-packet channel reliability parameter for each slave receiver.

3. The wireless receiver of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is arranged to determine whether to assign a new master receiver for the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus every n symbols of a data packet being received, where n≥1, wherein n is a natural number.

4. The wireless receiver of claim 3 , wherein n is dynamically configured based on previous master re-assignments for the data packet being received.

5. The wireless receiver of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further arranged to receive initial channel reliability parameters for a preamble of a data packet being received in relation to the wireless receiver and the at least one further wireless receiver, select a receiver to be an initial master receiver based on the received initial channel reliability parameters, and to assign the selected receiver as the initial master receiver for the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus.

6. The wireless receiver of claim 1 , wherein:

the wireless receiver further comprises a controller component arranged to configure the wireless receiver to operate in one of the master receiver role in which the combined signal component is arranged to perform diversity combining of the recovered information signals, and a slave receiver role in which the recovered information signal output by the pre-combining component of the wireless receiver is transmitted to the at least one further wireless receiver for diversity combining; and

the monitoring component is arranged to re-assign the wireless receiver from the master receiver role to the slave receiver role by signalling to the controller component to configure the wireless receiver to operate in the slave receiver role.

7. The wireless receiver of claim 6 , wherein the controller component is further arranged to receive via a digital link a signal from the at least one further wireless receiver to configure the wireless receiver to operate in the master receiver role.

8. The wireless receiver of claim 7 , wherein upon receipt of the signal from the at least one further wireless receiver to configure the wireless receiver to operate in the master receiver role, the controller component is further arranged to receive via the digital link an indication of a state of at least one cross-symbol function and to configure the state of at least one corresponding cross-symbol function of the wireless receiver according to the received indication.

9. The wireless receiver of claim 6 , wherein upon receipt of the signal from the monitoring component to configure the wireless receiver to operate in the slave receiver role, the controller component is further arranged transmit an indication of a state of at least one cross-symbol function of the wireless receiver to at least one further wireless receiver via a digital link.

10. The wireless receiver of claim 9 , wherein the monitoring component is arranged to re-assign the at least one further wireless receiver from a slave receiver role to a master receiver role by signalling to a controller component of the at least one further wireless receiver via the digital link to configure the at least one further wireless receiver to operate in the master receiver role.

11. The wireless receiver of claim 8 , wherein when configured to operate in the master receiver role the wireless receiver is arranged to;

receive compressed recovered information and intra-packet channel reliability parameters from the at least one further wireless receiver;

perform decompression of the compressed recovered information and provide the decompressed recovered information to the combined-signal component for performing diversity combining; and

derive channel estimate information for the at least one further wireless receiver based on the received intra-packet channel reliability and to transmit the derived channel estimate information to the at least one further wireless receiver.

12. The wireless receiver of claim 8 , wherein when configured to operate in the slave receiver role the wireless receiver is arranged to:

perform compression of recovered information output by the pre-combining component;

transmit the compressed recovered information to the at least one further wireless receiver configured to operate in the master receiver mode for performing diversity combining;

receive channel estimate information from the at least one further wireless receiver configured to operate in the master receiver mode; and

perform channel tracking for recovering the information signal contained within the received RF signal based on the received channel estimate information.

13. A distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus comprising at least two wireless receivers according to claim 1 .

14. A distributed wireless communication system comprising the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus of claim 13 .

15. A method of dynamically assigning master/slave roles within a distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus; the method comprising:

receiving intra-packet channel reliability parameters for a master wireless receiver and for at least one slave wireless receiver, wherein the at least one slave wireless receiver is independent of the master wireless receiver and coupled to the master wireless receiver via a bi-directional communication link,

determining whether to assign a new master receiver for the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus based on the received intra-packet reliability parameters, and

if it is determined to assign a new master receiver, dynamically re-assigning the master receiver within the distributed antenna diversity receiver apparatus.