Abstract: Techniques to select an antenna from a plurality of antennae used for wireless communications are described. A first embodiment of the techniques is a method to select an antenna from a plurality of antennae. The method includes monitoring at least one antenna during a fraction of at least one preamble period of a frame to derive at least one quality indicator corresponding to the antenna; storing the quality indicator derived from monitoring the antenna during the fraction of the preamble period of a frame; and selectively switching to a selected antenna after a number of frames, based on the quality indicator. A second embodiment is another method to select an antenna from a plurality of antennae. These embodiments can be applied in several wireless communication applications using multiple antennae.

Abstract: This invention relates to techniques for managing the transmission and reception of data fragments that contains one or more data blocks using a single timer. One embodiment of the invention includes the following steps: processing the fragments sequentially, wherein each fragment has a processing index that corresponds to sequential processing of that fragment; processing each of the fragments until a termination upon meeting a first pre-defined condition; assigning a timer to an un-terminated fragment having a lowest processing index; starting said timer having a timeout value; and running said timer until the processing of said un-terminated fragment is terminated. This invention uses only one timer for each connection and therefore reduces memory and operational needs in the management of the data fragments that are being received or transmitted.

Abstract: Techniques to generate synchronization information from received signals in communication applications are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method for generating synchronization information from received signals includes providing a fixed gain to a received analog signal to generate a modified analog signal, converting the modified analog signal to a digital signal, extracting one or more sign bits from the digital signal, and generating synchronization information as a function of the one or more sign bits. Various embodiments can be applied in several wireless and wired communication applications.