Systems and methods for hybrid hardware and software implementation of multiple wireless standards
Advances in wireless technologies have resulted in the ability of a wireless communication system to support wireless communications of different standards, e.g., 5G, LTE, and Wi-Fi. Different Wireless standards have aspects which are very different from each other. Described in the present disclosure are embodiments of architecture with hardware and software split to allow implementation of different wireless standards along a configurable signal process path. The configurable signal process path comprises software configurable operators that may be configured in a desired level of granularity to load desirable software to process signals of various standards on the same hardware. Embodiments of the disclosed architecture with hybrid hardware and software implementation may improve system operation efficiency and lower system complexity to serve communications across multiple wireless standards.
1. A method for signal processing across wireless standards comprising:
receiving, at a signal processing system, a plurality of wireless signals across multiple wireless standards;
configuring, at the signal processing system, a configurable signal processing path to respectively process the plurality of wireless signals at a desired level of granularity, the configurable signal processing path comprises one or more software-configurable operators; and
processing the plurality of wireless signals with the configurable signal processing path according to the configuring, the one or more software-configurable operators are operated with software corresponding to a wireless standard of a wireless signal, among the plurality of wireless signals, when the wireless signal is processed; and
wherein the configurable signal processing path is configured by a central control unit comprising a plurality of schedulers to perform designated scheduling operation, the central control unit outputs one or more commands to each software-configurable operator for operation scheduling, each command comprises comprise a scheduled interval for command implementing and dependencies, one or more configuration parameters including an involved wireless standard involved during the scheduled interval, and one or more command completion actions.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the configurable signal processing path further comprises at least one hardware-configurable operator, the at least one hardware-configurable operator is operated with selection of one or more standard-specific accelerators corresponding to the wireless standard of the wireless signal when the wireless signal is processed according to the configuring.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one hardware-configurable operator is an encoder and decoder unit comprising standard-specific encoders and standard-specific decoders.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple wireless standards comprise multiple standards among a group comprising at least 5G new radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Wi-Fi.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired level of granularity is a symbol level or a block level of granularity.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more software-configurable operators comprise one or more of a sample processing unit (SPU), a signal processing engine (SPE) on a radio unit (RU), an enhanced Common Public Radio Interface (eCPRI) fronthaul on a RU, an enhanced Common Public Radio Interface (eCPRI) fronthaul, a SPE on a distribution unit (DU), a FEC on a DU, a packet processing unit (PPU), or a monolith gNodeB/eNodeB/Wi-Fi access point incorporating all of the above components.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein each software-configurable operator loads desired code, firmware, or kernel corresponding to the wireless standard at the beginning of the scheduled interval specified by each command.