A demodulation mask bitmap includes binary mask values. Each mask value corresponds to an input resource element to a demodulator. For each mask value of a first state, a demodulation engine of the demodulator is not clocked and the demodulator outputs a zero-valued resource element. For each mask value of a second state, the demodulation engine is clocked, the input resource element is demodulated, and the demodulator outputs a demodulated resource element. A demodulation mask bitmap is designed to mask pilot resource elements and corrupted resource elements. Power is conserved by not clocking the demodulation engine for corrupted and pilot resource elements. Subsequent LLR generation and decode operations are simplified. Decoder performance is improved because the decoder does not decode LLR values derived from corrupted resource elements and/or resource elements not relevant to the reconstruction of a communicated message.