Method and system for processing lower NFFT LTE rates over CPRI link

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a radio equipment control (REC) device of a wireless communication system over an interface link, time domain compressed data from a radio equipment (RE) device at a first data transmission rate; and

transforming, by the REC device, the time domain compressed data to frequency domain decompressed full rate data for a second transmission data rate utilizing a Fast Fourier processing engine of the REC device, wherein said transforming comprises

transforming, using the Fast Fourier processing engine, the time-domain compressed data to frequency domain compressed data, and

padding the frequency domain compressed data with zeros to create the frequency domain decompressed full rate data, wherein said padding is performed subsequent to said transforming the time-domain compressed data to frequency domain compressed data;

transforming, by the fast Fourier processing engine, the frequency domain decompressed full rate data to time domain decompressed full rate data; and

processing, by a random access channel (RACH) circuit, the time domain decompressed full rate data.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

processing the frequency domain decompressed full rate data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data transmission rate is less than the second data transmission rate.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interface link comprises one or more of a common public radio interface (CPRI) and an open base station architecture initiative (OBSAI) interface.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises one or more of a long term evolution (LTE) system, a LTE advanced system, a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WIMAX) system, a WIMAX advanced system, and a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system.

6. A wireless communication system comprising:

an interface link; and

a radio equipment control (REC) circuit configured to:

receive time domain compressed data over the interface link from a radio equipment (RE) device at a first data transmission rate; and

perform a Fast Fourier transformation using a Fast Fourier processing engine to transform the time domain compressed data to frequency domain compressed data; and

pad the frequency domain compressed data with zeros to create frequency domain decompressed full rate data, wherein padding the frequency domain compressed data is performed subsequent to the fast Fourier transformation;

transform, at the fast Fourier processing engine, the frequency domain decompressed full rate data to time domain decompressed full rate data; and

process, at a random access channel (RACH) circuit, the time domain decompressed full rate data.

7. The wireless communication system of claim 6 , wherein an inverse fast Fourier transformation is performed to transform the frequency domain decompressed full rate data to the time domain decompressed full rate data.

8. The wireless communication system of claim 6 , wherein the first data transmission rate is less than the second data transmission rate.