RF Front-End Address Correlation for Low-Power Frame Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless systems, especially those following the IEEE 802.11 standards, frame dropping occurs due to mismatched source and destination frame addresses, leading to unnecessary power consumption and resource wastage as the host decides whether to process irrelevant frames, which can be avoided if address filtering is performed efficiently at the RF front end.
Innovation Solution
The RF front end performs address filtering by correlating received symbols with stored address symbols, determining if they match a threshold, and only waking up the baseband system and host for relevant frames, thereby reducing frame dropping and conserving power by keeping the baseband system in a low power state unless the frame is relevant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If address filtering is performed at the host level, then the host can determine whether to process frames, but power consumption increases and resources are wasted due to processing irrelevant frames
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs address filtering in advance at the RF front end before frames are passed to the baseband system and host. The RF front end correlates received frame addresses with stored address patterns and only forwards matching frames upward, preventing unnecessary processing at higher levels and reducing host power consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the frame processing function into multiple segments: the RF front end handles address filtering, the baseband system handles other frame processing, and the host handles application-level processing. This segmentation allows each component to perform only its designated function, improving overall system efficiency and reducing unnecessary power consumption
2Productivity
If the baseband system processes all received frames, then complete frame processing is achieved, but power consumption increases when frames are irrelevant
Solution Approach 1:
The RF front end performs preliminary address filtering before frames reach the baseband system. By correlating received addresses with stored patterns and only forwarding matches, the system prevents the baseband system from processing irrelevant frames, thereby reducing its power consumption while maintaining processing throughput for relevant frames
3Reliability
If address filtering is performed at the RF front end, then frame dropping is reduced and power is conserved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the RF front end multi-functional by adding address filtering capability to its existing signal processing functions. The same RF front end hardware that performs receiving and signal processing now also performs address filtering through correlation operations, eliminating the need for separate filtering hardware and reducing overall system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the address filtering function with the existing RF front end operations. Instead of adding a separate filtering stage, the address filtering is integrated into the signal processing chain at the RF front end, combining multiple functions into a single component to reduce overall system complexity
Data Source
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AI summary
A radio frequency (RF) front end receives one or more symbols of a first frame transmitted by a transmitter. The RF front end determines that the one or more received symbols are correlated to one or more address symbols, where the one or more address symbols are each a time-domain signal of subcarriers that the transmitter transmits. The RF front end provides the received one or more symbols to a baseband system based on the correlation. The baseband system recovers bits of a second frame within the first frame based on the received one or more symbols.