Patent ID: 7974258

Claim:
An adaptive mode transmitter, comprising: a sub-carrier mapping module to process a stream of information to generate a transmission signal, the sub-carrier mapping module further comprising: an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulator to generate first sub-carrier assignments, wherein the OFDMA modulator comprises a serial-to-parallel converter to receive a serialized output from a symbol mapper and convert the serialized output into the first sub-carrier assignments; a single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) modulator to generate second sub-carrier assignments, wherein the SC-FDMA modulator comprises a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spreader to convert non-sub-carrier assignments into the second sub-carrier assignments by combining the non-sub-carrier assignments with a plurality of symbols to form the second sub-carrier assignments; and a modulation select module to dynamically select either the OFDMA modulator or the SC-FDMA modulator based on bandwidth allocation, selected modulation order, transmit power, power amplifier backoff, or a combination thereof, all being characteristics of the entity generating the transmission signal; and an inverse fast-Fourier transform to receive either the first sub-carrier assignments or the second sub-carrier assignments in generating the transmission signal; wherein the modulation select module: receives the serialized output from the symbol mapper; and when the bandwidth allocation does not exceed a predetermined threshold bandwidth allocation; or when the modulation order does not exceed a predetermined threshold modulation order; or when the transmit power exceeds a predetermined threshold transmit power; then, the modulation select module turns on the DFT spreader.