Patent ID: 8174428

Claim:
In a base transceiver system of a wireless communication network, a method for transferring signal data from a radio frequency (RF) unit to a base station processor over a serial data link, wherein the RF unit is coupled to an antenna to receive an analog signal modulated based on communication data and includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that converts the analog signal to a plurality of signal samples, wherein the base station processor performs signal processing operations on the signal samples received from the RF unit, the method comprising: compressing the signal sample output from the ADC at the RF unit to form compressed samples in accordance with a compression control parameter, including calculating a sum or difference of a pair of signal samples separated by a predetermined number of sample intervals in accordance with the compression control parameter to produce a modified sample, wherein a plurality of modified samples is calculated from a plurality of pairs of signal samples; and encoding the modified samples to form the compressed samples; formatting the compressed samples for transfer over the serial data link; transferring the compressed samples over the serial data link from the RF unit to the base station processor; receiving the compressed samples at the base station processor; and decompressing the compressed samples to form decompressed signal samples in accordance with a decompression control parameter, wherein the base station processor applies the signal processing operations to the decompressed signal samples.