A multiple sub-carrier selection (MSCS) diversity architecture with reduced receiver complexity for wireless OFDM applications

A simple multiple sub-carrier selection (MSCS) diversity combining receiver architecture for 802.11 OFDM wireless applications is proposed. This architecture can improve the system diversity performance with nearly the hardware simplicity of selection combining. A complex analog filter bank is inserted into antenna RF front end, which is also part of channel selection filter. By detecting the power level at each complex filter output, we can choose the optimum band from each antenna filter to maximize the receiver signal output. The added hardware complexity of the analog/RF receiver is minimal, and only a single A/D and DFT block are required.