Quantization-Based Modulation and Coding Scheme for Mobile Fronthaul

An apparatus comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive a combined modulated signal comprising most-significant-bits (MSBs) and least-significant-bits (LSBs) of an input signal;
• a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to:
• separate the MSBs from the combined modulated signal via a first demodulation and decoding;
• separate the LSBs from the combined modulated signal via a second demodulation, wherein the second demodulation is different from the first demodulation;
• recombine the MSBs and the LSBs to generate a reconstructed representation of the input signal comprising in-phase and quadrature (IQ) bits;
• and
• provide the IQ bits to a remote radio unit (RRU) for transmission.

An apparatus comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive an input signal comprising in-phase and quadrature (IQ) bits and control words (CWs) bits;
• a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to:
• divide the IQ bits into most-significant-bits (MSBs) and least-significant-bits (LSBs);
• encode the MSBs to form encoded MSBs;
• modulate the encoded MSBs with a first modulation to form a modulated encoded MSBs;
• modulate the LSBs with a second modulation to form a modulated LSBs;
• and
• combine the modulated encoded MSBs and the modulated LSBs into a combined modulated signal;
• and
• a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to synchronously transmit the combined modulated signal over a transmission channel.