Patent ID: 7065036

Claim:
A radio receiver for implementing the physical layer receiving function (PHY) of a wireless data network, the receiver including: a receiver front-end for receiving radio signals and including one or more analog-to-digital converters, the receiver front-end providing samples of a received packet of data; a receive processing pipeline coupled to the receiver front-end to process the provided samples of the received packet of data, the samples entering the receive processing pipeline at a first sample rate; a counter counting a running count indicative of the number of samples that have entered the processing pipeline; a comparison unit coupled to the counter for determining from the running count if all the samples of the received packet have entered the pipeline, having an output indicative of whether or not all samples have entered the pipeline; and a clock unit coupled to the comparison unit output and providing a clock signal to the pipeline, the clock unit causing the processing pipeline to process the samples entering the pipeline at a first rate compatible with the first sample rate until the comparison unit output indicates that all samples have entered the pipeline, thereafter the clock unit causing the processing pipeline to process the samples in the pipeline at a second rate higher than the first rate until the last sample of the packet has been output by the pipeline, such that the processing latency for processing the complete packet is reduced from the case of the processing pipeline processing the samples all at the first rate.