Method for Demodulating the HT-SIG Field Used in WLAN Standard

1 - 14 . (canceled)

15 . A method for demodulating a signal, comprising:

determining whether the signal is modulated with a first phase modulation technique or a second phase modulation technique, the first phase modulation technique being based on a first phase constellation diagram and the second phase modulation technique being based on a second phase constellation diagram, wherein the second phase constellation diagram is obtained by rotating the first phase constellation diagram by an angle of 90 degrees;

if the signal is modulated with the second phase modulation technique, demodulating the signal with a demodulator adapted to demodulate signals modulated with the second phase modulation technique; and

if the signal is modulated with the first phase modulation technique, rotating the signal by said angle and demodulating the rotated signal with the demodulator adapted to demodulate signals modulated with the second phase modulation technique.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the demodulator operates in MIMO mode and further comprising:

receiving the signal modulated with the first modulation technique at a single antenna;

sending the received signal from the single antenna to a processing circuit; and

converting the rotated signal into MEMO mode at the processing circuit prior to demodulating the rotated signal with the demodulator.

17 . The method of claim 2 , wherein converting the rotated signal into MIMO mode comprises buffering the signal and wherein demodulating the rotated signal comprises demodulating based on a diagonal matrix as an effective channel between the transmitted signal and the received signal.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the demodulator operates in MINK) mode and further comprising:

receiving the signal modulated with a first modulation technique at a plurality of antennas;

combining the received signal over the plurality of antennas at a pre-processing circuit;

sending the combined signal from the pre-processing circuit to a processing circuit; and

converting the rotated signal into MIMO mode at the processing circuit prior to demodulating the rotated signal.

19 . The method of claim 4 , wherein combining the received signal over the plurality of antennas comprises combining the received signal using one of a maximum-ratio combining method and a receive diversity method.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first modulation technique is Quadrature-Binary Phase Shift Keying (Q-BPSK) and the second modulation technique is In phase-Binary Phase Shift Keying (I-BPSK).

21 . The method of claim 6 , wherein rotating the signal by said 90 degrees comprises multiplying by −i, where i is the square root of −1.

22 . The method claim 1 , wherein the signal is the HT-SIG field as defined in the standard 802.11n for WLA communication.

23 . A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable process steps for demodulating a signal, said computer-executable process steps operative to cause a computer to perform the steps of:

determining whether the signal is modulated with a first phase modulation technique or a second phase modulation technique, the first phase modulation technique being based on a first phase constellation diagram and the second phase modulation technique being based on a second phase constellation diagram, wherein the second phase constellation diagram is obtained by rotating the first phase constellation diagram by an angle of 90 degrees;

if the signal is modulated with the second phase modulation technique, demodulating the signal with a demodulator adapted to demodulate signals modulated with the second phase modulation technique; and

if the signal is modulated with the first phase modulation technique, rotating the signal by said angle and demodulating the rotated signal with the demodulator adapted to demodulate signals modulated with the second phase modulation technique.

24 . A radio-frequency receiver comprising:

one or more antennas operative to receive a signal;

a phase modulation technique detector circuit adapted to detect if the signal is modulated with a first phase modulation technique or a second phase modulation technique, the first phase modulation technique being based on a first phase constellation diagram and the second phase modulation technique being based on a second phase constellation diagram, wherein the second phase constellation diagram is obtained by rotating the first phase constellation diagram by an angle of 90 degrees;

a demodulator adapted to demodulate signals modulated with the second phase modulation technique;

a processing circuit operatively connected to the demodulator and adapted to rotate a signal modulated with the first phase modulation technique by said angle; and

a demultiplexer adapted to separate the signal of the modulation detected by the phase modulation technique detector circuit, the demultiplexer adapted to send the signal to the processing circuit in case the signal is modulated with the first phase modulation and to send the signal to the demodulator in case the signal is modulated with the second phase modulation.

25 . The receiver of claim 10 , wherein the demodulator operates in MIMO mode and further comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive the signal modulated with the first modulation technique at a single antenna, and send the received signal from the single antenna to a processing circuit; and

wherein the processing circuit is further adapted to convert the rotated signal into MIMO mode prior to demodulating the rotated signal with the demodulator.

26 . The receiver of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuit is adapted to convert the rotated signal into MIMO by buffering the signal, and wherein a demodulator adapted to demodulate the rotated signal based on a diagonal matrix as an effective channel between the transmitted signal and the received signal.

27 . The receiver of claim 10 , wherein the demodulator operates in MIMO mode and further comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive the signal modulated with the first modulation technique at a plurality of antennas;

a pre-processing circuit adapted to combine the received signal over the plurality of antennas and send the combined signal to the processing circuit; and

wherein the processing circuit is further adapted to convert the rotated signal into MIMO mode prior to demodulating the rotated signal with the demodulator.

28 . The receiver of claim 13 , wherein the pre-processing circuit is adapted to combine the received signal over the plurality of antennas by combining the received signal using one of a maximum-ratio combining method and a receive diversity method.

29 . The receiver of claim 10 , wherein the first modulation technique is Quadrature-Binary Phase Shift Keying (Q-BPSK) and the second modulation technique is In-phase-Binary Phase Shift Keying (I-BPSK).

30 . The receiver of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuit is adapted to rotate the signal modulated with the first phase modulation technique by said 90 degrees by multiplying by −i, where i is the square root of −1.

31 . The receiver claim 10 , wherein the signal is the HT-SIG field as defined in the standard 802.11n for WLA communication.