Power management of radio transceiver elements

• US 8,355,759 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2012
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• 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:
  US13/445,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20120196553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 278 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.4, 455/528, 455/572, 455/573, 455/574, 455/343.2
• 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 radio receiver, comprising:

an RF front end for receiving an inbound radio frequency (RF) signal and a local oscillation and producing a baseband signal from the inbound RF signal and the local oscillation;

a baseband processing module for producing inbound data from the baseband signal;

a local oscillator for generating the local oscillation; and

a power control module for;

identifying a receiver inactivity time corresponding to a time period between received RF signals in an established communication link;

identifying one or more elements of at least one of the RF front end, baseband processing module and local oscillator that can be powered down and back up within the receiver inactivity time to reduce power consumption; and

identifying a restoration time for at least one element of the one or more elements, wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element should automatically be powered on in order to achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time.

2. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the power control module further:

powers down the at least one element during the receiver inactivity time; and

powers the at least one element of the radio receiver back to an operational mode based upon the restoration time such that the at least one element reaches a steady state of operation by the expiration of the receiver inactivity time.

3. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the power control module determines the receiver inactivity time based upon 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.

4. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the at least one element comprises at least one of the RF front end, 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, the baseband processing 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.

5. The radio receiver 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.

6. A radio receiver, comprising:

an RF front end for receiving an inbound radio frequency (RF) signal and a local oscillation and producing a baseband signal from the inbound RF signal and the local oscillation;

a baseband processing module for producing inbound data from the baseband signal;

a local oscillator for generating the local oscillation; and

a power control module for;

identifying a radio receiver element inactivity time for at least one radio receiver element of the RF front end, baseband processing module and local oscillator in an established communication link;

powering down, based upon the determined radio receiver element inactivity time, the at least one radio receiver element;

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

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

7. The radio receiver of claim 6, wherein the power control module determines the radio receiver element inactivity time based upon 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.

8. The radio receiver of claim 6, 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.

9. The radio receiver of claim 6, wherein the at least one radio receiver element comprises at least one of the RF front end, 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, the baseband processing 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.

10. The radio receiver of claim 6, wherein the power control module further:

identifies a respective radio receiver element inactivity time for each of a plurality of radio receiver elements of the RF front end, the baseband processing module and the local oscillator;

powers down, based upon the determined respective radio receiver element inactivity time, the plurality of radio receiver elements;

identifies a respective restoration time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements; and

powers the plurality of radio receiver elements to an operational mode at the respective restoration time of each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

11. The radio receiver of claim 10, wherein the respective radio receiver element inactivity time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements is determined based upon a number of communication beacons.

12. A radio receiver, comprising:

an RF front end for receiving an inbound radio frequency (RF) signal and a local oscillation and producing a baseband signal from the inbound RF signal and the local oscillation;

a baseband processing module for producing inbound data from the baseband signal;

a local oscillator for generating the local oscillation; and

a power control module for;

identifying a radio receiver element inactivity time for at least one radio receiver element of the RF front end, the baseband processing module and the local oscillator in an established communication link;

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

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

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.

13. The radio receiver of claim 12, wherein the power control module further determines the receiver element inactivity time based upon 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.

14. The radio receiver of claim 12, 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.

15. The radio receiver of claim 12, wherein the at least one radio receiver element comprises at least one of the 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, the baseband processing 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.

16. The radio receiver of claim 12, wherein the power control module further:

identifies a respective radio receiver element inactivity time for each of a plurality of radio receiver elements of the RF front end, the baseband processing module and the local oscillator; and

identifies a respective restoration time for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

17. The radio receiver of claim 16, wherein the power control module further:

places each of the plurality of radio receiver elements in a power reduction mode based upon the determined respective receiver element inactivity time; and

powers each of the plurality of radio receiver elements to an operational mode at the respective restoration time determined for each of the plurality of radio receiver elements.

18. The radio receiver of claim 12, wherein the selected power reduction mode is a partial power reduction mode.

19. The radio receiver of claim 12, wherein the selected power reduction mode is a full power reduction mode.

20. A radio receiver, comprising:

an RF front end for receiving an inbound radio frequency (RF) signal and a local oscillation and producing a baseband signal from the inbound RF signal and the local oscillation;

a baseband processing module for producing inbound data from the baseband signal;

a local oscillator for generating the local oscillation; and

a power control module for;

identifying one or more elements of the RF front end, the baseband processing module and the local oscillator that can be powered down and back up within a receiver inactivity time to reduce power consumption, wherein the receiver inactivity time is a time period between received RF signals in an established communication link; and

powering at least one element of the one or more elements to an operational mode based only upon a restoration time, wherein the at least one element has reached a steady state of operation by the expiration of the receiver inactivity time, wherein the restoration time is a time at which the at least one element should automatically be powered on in order to achieve an operational mode steady state prior to the expiration of the receiver inactivity time.