Quasi-parallel multichannel receivers for wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexed communications and associated methods

Abstract

A quasi-parallel receiver may simultaneously receive signals within several subchannels that comprise a wideband channel. The receiver includes a subchannel filter selection switch that provides a baseband signal to a selected one of a plurality of subchannel low-pass filters. A heterodyne frequency generator provides one of a plurality of heterodyne frequencies to convert an RF signal received within a selected subchannel to the baseband signal. The subchannel low-pass filters accumulate signal information from an associated one of a plurality of subchannels during a filter-input sampling interval. In some embodiments, individual analog-to-digital converters receive the accumulated signal outputs from an associated subchannel filter and generate digital signals for a subsequent Fourier transformation. In some embodiments, a normalized signal output may be provided to the analog-to-digital converters, allowing the use of lower resolution analog-to-digital converters. The analog-to-digital converters may have sampling rates based on the subchannel bandwidth.