Transmitter, receiver and a method for digital multiple sub-band processing

1. A transmitter that comprises:

a set of first filters with outputs connected to a summing node;

a set of upsamplers;

a set of sub-band processors, wherein each sub-band processor comprises an interpolator, a cyclic shifter and a second filter;

wherein each cyclic shifter is coupled between an interpolator and an upsampler;

wherein each first filter follows an upsampler;

wherein different interpolators are arranged to receive different sets of signals and perform up-sampling;

wherein the set of first filters is arranged to output virtual sub-channels of information occupying disjoint spectral sub-bands;

wherein each sub-band is associated with a pair of filters that comprises a first filter and a second filter, wherein the first filter has a milder frequency response outside the sub-band than a frequency response of the second filter outside the sub-band;

wherein each interpolator comprises:

a serial to parallel converter;

a N point fast Fourier transform (FFT) module arranged to output N element vectors;

a zero padding and circular shift module arranged to perform a zero padding operation and a circular shift operation on the N element vectors to provide V*N element circled vectors;

a N*V point inverse FFT (IFFT) module; and

a parallel to serial conversion and cyclic prefix adder coupled to an output of the N*V point IFFT module.

2. The transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein each second filter substantially nullifies spectral components outside the sub-band associated with the second filter; wherein each first filter passes spectral components that belong to at least one sub-band that differs from a sub-band associated with the first filter.

3. The transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein each upsampler performs a L-factor upsampling, and wherein each interpolator performs a V-factor upsampling; wherein L and V are positive numbers.

4. The transmitter according to claim 3 , wherein L and V differ from a number (M) of the sub-bands.

5. The transmitter according to claim 3 , wherein V equals 4/3.

6. The transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein the zero padding and circular shift module is a routing fabric arranged to implement the circular shift operation and the zero padding operation by performing a mapping between outputs of the N point FFT module and inputs of the N*V point IFFT module.

7. The transmitter according to claim 6 , wherein the routing fabric is arranged to implement the circular shift operation and the zero padding operation without storing any elements of a N element output vectors within a buffer and without performing data transfers between different locations of the buffer.

8. The transmitter according to claim 7 , wherein the routing fabric is arranged to couple between some groups of outputs of the N point FFT module and some groups of inputs of the N*V point IFFT module.

9. A transmitter that comprises:

a set of first filters with outputs connected to a summing node;

a set of upsamplers;

a set of sub-band processors, wherein each sub-band processor comprises an interpolator, a cyclic shifter and a second filter;

wherein each cyclic shifter is coupled between an interpolator and an upsampler;

wherein each first filter follows an upsampler;

wherein different interpolators are arranged to receive different sets of signals and perform up-sampling;

wherein the set of first filters is arranged to output virtual sub-channels of information occupying disjoint spectral sub-bands;

wherein each sub-band is associated with a pair of filters that comprises a first filter and a second filter, wherein the first filter has a milder frequency response outside the sub-band than a frequency response of the second filter outside the sub-band;

wherein each virtual sub-channel of information that occupies a sub-band is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) compliant sub-channel of information; wherein each interpolator is coupled to an OFDM transmitter module; wherein a combination of each interpolator and OFDM transmitter module comprises:

a serial to parallel converter;

a zero padding and circular shift module arranged to perform a zero padding operation and a circular shift operation on output vectors of the serial to parallel converter to provide zero padded and rotated vectors;

an N*V point inverse FFT (IFFT) module;

a parallel to serial conversion and cyclic prefix adder coupled to an output of the N*V point IFFT module.