Power management of radio transceiver elements

• US 7,512,423 B2
• Filed: 10/22/2002
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Karaoguz, Jeyhan
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhattacharya; Sam
• Application Number:
  US10/277,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20040029620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,352 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.4, 455/528, 455/572, 455/573, 455/574, 455/343.2, 370/346, 370/395.21, 370/445, 370/449, 370/349, 370/503, 370/487, 370/490, 370/537
• US Class Current: 455/574
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1615 Switching on; Switching off, e.g. remotely battery saving circuits associated with selective call operation H04W52/00; details of power consumption reduction in a PLL, H03L7/0802, H03L7/14, H03L2207/08, H03L2207/18; muting amplifiers by gain control see H03G3/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0238 where the received signal is an unwanted signal, e.g. interference or idle signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0283 with sequential power up or power down of successive circuit blocks, e.g. switching on the local oscillator before RF or mixer stages
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A radio receiver includes a power control module for selectively powering down and powering up radio receiver elements in between known communication periods according to one aspect of the present invention. According to a second aspect of the invention, the radio receiver operates in a low power mode of operation and periodically “sniffs” to determine whether an access point has messages or communication signals to transmit to it.

Claims

1. A method for saving power in a radio receiver, comprising:

determining a receiver inactivity time wherein the receiver inactivity time is a time period between received radio frequency (RF) transmissions in an established communication link;

determining a list of elements of the radio receiver that can be powered down and back within the receiver inactivity time to reduce power consumption;

establishing, based upon the determined inactivity time, a power reduction mode for at least one element of the radio receiver;

determining a restoration time for the at least one element wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element should automatically be powered on in order achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time; and

powering the at least one element of the radio receiver to an operational mode based only upon the restoration time wherein the at least one element has reached a steady state of operation by the expiration of the receiver inactivity time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver inactivity time is based upon a number considerations including known and defined communication periods, a number of communication beacons, or a known amount of time until an allocated time slot in a time divided communication system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one element comprises at least one of a RF front end section, a low noise amplifier, a local oscillator crystal, a local oscillator crystal amplifier, a local oscillator phase-locked-loop module, a local oscillator clock distribution tree, a filtering module, a physical baseband processor module, an analog-to-digital conversion module, a first portion of a medium access control (MAC) processor, or a second portion of the MAC processor.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the restoration time is approximately equal to the determined receiver inactivity time minus an element wake up time for the at least one element.

5. A method for saving power in a radio receiver, comprising:

determining a radio receiver element inactivity time for at least one radio receiver element in an established communication link;

establishing, based upon the determined inactivity time, a power reduction mode for the at least one radio receiver element;

determining a restoration time for the at least one radio receiver element wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element should automatically be powered on in order achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time; and

powering the at least one radio receiver element to an operational mode based solely on the restoration time.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the inactivity time is based upon a number of considerations including known and defined communication periods, a number of communication beacons, or a known amount of time until an allocated time slot in a time divided communication system.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the restoration time is approximately equal to the determined radio receiver inactivity time minus an element wake up time for the at least one radio receiver element.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the at least one radio receiver element comprises at least one of a RF front end section, a low noise amplifier, a local oscillator crystal, a local oscillator crystal amplifier, a local oscillator phase-locked-loop module, a local oscillator clock distribution tree, a filtering module, a physical baseband processor module, an analog-to-digital conversion module, a first portion of a medium access control (MAC) processor, or a second port ion of the MAC processor.

9. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining a radio receiver element inactivity time for a plurality of radio receiver elements.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising establishing, based upon the determined inactivity time, a power reduction mode for the plurality of radio receiver elements.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining a restoration time for the plurality of radio receiver elements.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising powering the plurality of radio receiver elements to an operational mode at the restoration time of each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the inactivity time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements is based upon a number of communication beacons.

14. A method for saving power in a radio receiver, comprising:

determining a radio receiver element inactivity time for at least one radio receiver element in an established communication link;

determining a restoration time for the at least one radio receiver element wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element should automatically be powered on in order achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time;

determining whether to place the at least one radio receiver element into a power reduction mode;

determining what type of a plurality of types of power reduction modes should be selected for the at least one radio receiver element if it is to be placed into the power reduction mode;

placing the at least one radio receiver element into the selected power reduction mode; and

powering the at least one radio receiver element to an operational mode based solely on the restoration time.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the inactivity time is based upon a number considerations including known and defined communication periods, a number of communication beacons, or a known amount of time until an allocated time slot in a time divided communication system.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the restoration time is approximately equal to the determined inactivity time minus an element wake up time for the at least one radio receiver element.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the at least one radio receiver element comprises at least one of a RF front end section, a low noise amplifier, a local oscillator crystal, a local oscillator crystal amplifier, a local oscillator phase-locked-loop module, a local oscillator clock distribution tree, a filtering module, a physical baseband processor module, an analog-to-digital conversion module, a first portion of a medium access control (MAC) processor, or a second portion of the MAC processor.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising determining a radio receiver element inactivity time for each of a plurality of radio receiver elements.

19. The method of claim 14 further including establishing a power reduction mode for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements based upon the determined inactivity time.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising determining a restoration time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising powering each of the plurality of radio receiver elements to an operational mode at the restoration time determined for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the inactivity time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements is based upon a number of communication beacons.

23. A method for saving power in a radio receiver, comprising:

for a first radio receiver element;

determining a first radio receiver element inactivity time;

determining a first restoration time wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element in an established communication link should automatically be powered on in order achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time;

determining whether to place the first radio receiver element into a power reduction mode; and

determining what type of a plurality of types of power reduction modes should be selected for the first radio receiver element;

for a second radio receiver element;

determining a second radio receiver element inactivity time;

determining a second restoration time;

determining whether to place the second radio receiver element into a power reduction mode; and

determining what type of a plurality of types of power reduction modes should be selected for the second radio receiver element;

placing the first radio receiver element into a first selected power reduction mode;

placing the second radio receiver element into a second selected power reduction mode;

powering the first radio receiver element to an operational mode based solely on the first restoration time for the first radio receiver element; and

powering the second radio receiver element to an operational mode based solely on the second restoration time for the second radio receiver element.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the first selected power reduction mode is a partial power reduction mode.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the second selected power reduction mode is a full power reduction mode.