Versatile AAS receiver

A method in an Advanced Antenna System (AAS), receiver, the method comprising:

• at a digital processing block of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC):
• receiving a digitized receive signal from each of a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array, and for each digitized receive signal:
• processing the digitized received signal to create a first processed signal having a first bandwidth, beamforming the first processed signal to produce one or more data streams, and providing the one or more data streams to a central unit;
• and
• processing either the digitized receive signal or the first processed signal to create a second processed signal having a second bandwidth narrower than the first bandwidth, and providing the second processed signal to the central unit without beamforming the second processed signal, and wherein a path of the second processed signal does not include any beamformers.

An Advanced Antenna System (AAS), receiver, comprising a digital processing block of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), the digital processing block comprising processing circuitry configured to:

• receive a digitized receive signal from each of a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array, and for each digitized receive signal:
• process the digitized received signal to create a first processed signal having a first bandwidth, beamform the first processed signal to produce one or more data streams, and provide the one or more data streams to a central unit;
• and
• process either the digitized receive signal or the first processed signal to create a second processed signal having a second bandwidth narrower than the first bandwidth, and provide the second processed signal to the central unit without beamforming the second processed signal, and wherein a path of the second processed signal does not include any beamformers.

A base station configured to communicate with a User Equipment (UE), the base station comprising a radio interface comprising an Advanced Antenna System (AAS), receiver that comprises a digital processing block of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), configured to:

• receive a digitized receive signal from each of a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array of the AAS receiver, and for each digitized receive signal:
• process the digitized received signal to create a first processed signal having a first bandwidth, beamform the first processed signal to produce one or more data streams, and provide the one or more data streams to a central unit;
• and
• process either the digitized receive signal or the first processed signal to create a second processed signal having a second bandwidth narrower than the first bandwidth, and providing the second processed signal to the central unit without beamforming the second processed signal, and wherein a path of the second processed signal does not include any beamformers.