System and method for hardware sharing

摘要

A method of transceiving data includes providing a wireless transceiver chip that supports multiple wireless standards for transceiving data packets, wherein a first wireless standard comprises a first modulation and demodulation scheme, and wherein a second wireless standard comprises a second modulation and demodulation scheme, and wherein the first modulation and demodulation scheme is incompatible with the second modulation and demodulation scheme; activating only one PHY layer of the wireless transceiver chip during the transceiving of the data packets; using a MAC layer of the wireless transceiver chip to specify whether the first or second wireless standard is to be used for a given transceiving of the data packets; and the PHY layer receiving instructions from the MAC layer regarding which wireless standard is to be used for the transceiving of the data packets using hardware that is shared by the PHY layer corresponding to both wireless standards.

主权项

1. A method of transceiving data, said method comprising:
providing a wireless transceiver chip that supports multiple wireless standards for transceiving data packets, wherein the wireless transceiver chip comprises a first physical (PHY) layer corresponding to a first wireless standard of said multiple wireless standards that comprises a first modulation and demodulation scheme and a second physical (PHY) layer corresponding to a second wireless standard of said multiple wireless standards that comprises a second modulation and demodulation scheme, and wherein said first modulation and demodulation scheme is incompatible with said second modulation and demodulation scheme; activating one physical (PHY) layer of said wireless transceiver chip during the transceiving of said data packets; using a Media Access Control (MAC) layer of said wireless transceiver chip to specify whether said first wireless standard or said second wireless standard is to be used for a given transceiving of said data packets; and said PHY layer receiving instructions from said MAC layer regarding which wireless standard is to be used for said transceiving of said data packets using hardware that is shared by the first PHY layer and the second PHY layer corresponding to both said first wireless standard and said second wireless standard, wherein the shared hardware comprises at least one of:
a first shared component configured to be used by the first PHY layer for modulation according to the first wireless standard and by the second PHY layer for modulation according to the second wireless standard, ora second shared component configured to be used by the first PHY layer for demodulation according to the first wireless standard and by the second PHY layer for demodulation according to the second wireless standard.