Patent ID: 8116290

Claim:
Apparatus for receiving a plurality of frames in a Wireless Local Area Network, each frame of the plurality of frames including a preamble portion and a data portion, comprising: a radio front end operable to produce an inbound continuous waveform signal, the radio front end including circuitry operable to receive a radio frequency (“RF”) signal, downconvert the received RF signal to one of a baseband or intermediate frequency signal, filtration circuitry to filter noise and unwanted frequency components, and amplification circuitry to amplify the RF and downconverted signals; analog-to-digital conversion circuitry for converting the inbound continuous waveform signal from an analog domain to an inbound digital signal; and wherein the apparatus functions to: receive a frame of the plurality of frames; determine whether to process the received frame in a Reduced InterFrame Spacing (“RIFS”) receive mode; and when in the RIFS receive mode, process the preamble portion of the received frame in a front-end process including carrier sensing and configuring a receiver setup of a physical (“PHY”) layer; process the data portion of the received frame in a back-end process after processing the preamble portion; receive a subsequent frame of the plurality of frames within a RIFS interval based upon a modulation type of the plurality of frames; and process the data portion of the received subsequent frame in the back-end process using the receiver setup based upon a previously received frame without tearing down the receiver setup of the PHY layer.