Shared soft metric buffer for carrier aggregation receivers

Apparatus, comprising:

• a receiver, which is configured to receive from a transmitter an aggregated-spectrum signal comprising at least first and second component carriers in respective spectral bands;
• a memory, which holds at least one shared buffer;
• and
• processing circuitry, which is configured to buffer in the shared buffer information related to processing one or more of the component carriers, such that storage locations in the shared buffer are selectably assignable for storing at least first information related to the processing of the first component carrier and second information related to the processing of the second component carrier, and to process the one or more of the component carriers in the receiver using the information buffered in the shared buffer.

Apparatus, comprising:

• a receiver, which is configured to receive from a transmitter an aggregated-spectrum signal comprising a plurality of component carriers in respective spectral bands;
• a memory, which includes at least one shared buffer;
• and
• a processing unit, which is configured to process signals transmitted on the plurality of component carriers by the transmitter, and to selectively allocate memory space in the shared buffer to ones of the respective component carriers, for use in processing data in the signals carried on the component carriers, in response to control signals transmitted by the transmitter.