Dual-Core Wireless Scanning Power Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic devices that communicate wirelessly face significant power consumption due to compatibility with multiple communication standards, leading to reduced battery life, as they often maintain unused transmission functionality while scanning for signals.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dual-core system within electronic devices, where a main core handles transmission and a low-power receiving core handles scanning, allowing the main core to be deactivated during idle periods and the receiving core to maintain limited wireless communication functionality, thereby reducing power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single core is used for both transmission and reception in wireless communication, then the device maintains full functionality across multiple communication standards, but power consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless communication device is divided into two separate cores: a first core capable of both transmission and reception, and a second core capable only of reception. This segmentation allows the device to distribute functionality across specialized components, enabling the first core to handle full-duplex operations while the second core performs power-efficient background scanning and signal monitoring, thereby reducing overall power consumption while maintaining multi-standard compatibility.
2Speed
If transmission functionality is maintained during signal scanning, then the device can immediately transmit when a signal is detected, but unused transmission functionality consumes unnecessary battery power
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically allocates transmission functionality between the first and second cores based on operational needs. The first core maintains transmission capability for immediate response, while the second core can be activated for transmission only when specifically needed. This dynamic configuration allows the device to optimize power consumption by keeping transmission functionality available but not continuously active, balancing response time requirements with battery conservation.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing power consumption of an electronic device scanning for wireless communication signals while maintaining or even improving an efficiency of the scanning operations. To do so, the electronic device may include more than one scan core, such as a main core and a receiving core. The receiving core may have limited functionality compared to the main core. For example, the receiving core may only receive wireless signals (including scanning for wireless signals). That is, the receiving core may not support certain operations that consume relative high power that are supported by the main core, such as transmission of signals. In this way, operation of the receiving core, either in place of or in addition to the main core, may reduce power consumption of the electronic device by avoiding high power consuming operations, such as data transmission, while scanning for various signals.