System and method for fronthaul downlink IQ data compression

A system comprising:

• one or more data processors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform operations including:
• receiving compressed IQ data on a fronthaul network interface using a first number of bits, the compressed IQ data including (i) a maximum absolute value associated with a stream of IQ data and (ii) a constellation measure of a largest bounding box covering all subcarriers of the stream of IQ data,
• determining the maximum absolute value associated with the IQ data,
• determining the constellation measure associated with the IQ data,
• scaling at least a portion the compressed IQ data based on the maximum absolute value and the constellation measure, and
• post-processing the scaled IQ data to obtain de-compressed IQ data having a second number of bits, the second number of bits being greater than the first number of bits.

A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:

• receiving a stream of in-phase components and quadrature phase components as IQ data, the IQ data indicating which subcarriers each of the IQ data is to be sent;
• determining a maximum absolute value associated with the IQ data;
• determining a constellation measure of a largest bounding box covering all subcarriers of the IQ data;
• compressing the IQ data to obtain compressed IQ data based on the maximum absolute value and the constellation measure;
• and
• transmitting the compressed IQ data on a fronthaul network interface using a fewer number of bits compared to the received IQ data.