Reducing power consumption in a receiver

• US 7,643,439 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2006
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Metalink Ltd.
• Inventors: Kochman, Yuval, Penso, Moshe
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Danh C
• Application Number:
  US11/422,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20070291672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,307 Days
• Field of Search: 370/311, 370/328, 370/338, 375/340, 455/574
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Method and system for reducing the power consumption in a receiver. A power consumption control module reconfigures the receiver for every packet received by the receiver, by setting the receiver'"'"'s modules to an optimal mode of operation from a power consumption perspective, based on parameters extracted from each packet header.

Claims

1. A method of reducing power consumption in a receiver, said method comprising:

(a) receiving parameters relating to a packet;

(b) determining modes of operations corresponding to said parameters; and

(c) configuring at least one receiver module to a low power consumption mode of operation in accordance with said parameters,

wherein step (a) further comprises;

computing power consumption performance of said receiver for each power mode in accordance with received parameters,

wherein step (a) further comprises;

computing performance necessary to comply with corresponding communication protocol for the received parameters, and

wherein step (b) further comprises;

producing a valid power modes list by comparing computed power consumption performance with computed performance.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises:

choosing the valid power mode with the minimal value of power consumption from said list.

3. A system for reducing power consumption in a receiver, said system comprising:

a plurality of receiver modules; and

a power consumption control module,

wherein said power consumption control module is connected to at least one said receiver modules,

wherein at least one of said plurality of receiver modules has at least two modes of operation,

wherein said power consumption control module is configured to receive packet parameters and set said plurality of receiver modules to the corresponding mode of operation wherein reduction of power consumption is achieved,

wherein one of said receiver modules is a digital signal processing (DSP) module,

wherein said power consumption control module is connected to said DSP module, and

wherein said power consumption control module is configured to receive packet header parameters from said DSP module and set said plurality of receiver modules and said DSP module to the corresponding mode of operation wherein reduction of power consumption is achieved.

5. The system according to claim 3 wherein said reduction of power consumption in said DSP module is achieved by setting a mode of operation which limits computational intensive functionalities for some packet processing sessions.

6. The system according to claim 3 wherein said reduction of power consumption in said DSP module is achieved by setting a mode of operation in which the least significant bits are disabled.

4. A system for reducing power consumption in a receiver, said system comprising:

a plurality of receiver modules; and

a power consumption control module,

wherein said power consumption control module is connected to at least one said receiver modules,

wherein at least one of said plurality of receiver modules has at least two modes of operation,

wherein said power consumption control module is configured to receive packet parameters and set said plurality of receiver modules to the corresponding mode of operation wherein reduction of power consumption is achieved,

wherein said system is configured to operate in a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) transmission,

wherein at least one receiver module comprises a MIMO slicer, and wherein reduction of power consumption in said MIMO slicer is achieved by setting a mode of operation in which a sub optimal MIMO slicing is performed, and said sub optimal MIMO slicing comprises a MIMO channel equalizing followed by a simple slicing.