Opportunistic Error Correction in WLAN Applications

The current error correction layer of IEEE 802.11a WLAN is designed for worst case scenarios, which often do not apply. In this paper, we propose a new opportunistic error correction layer based on Fountain codes and a resolution adaptive ADC. The key part in the new proposed system is that only packets are processed by the receiver chain which have encountered "good" channel conditions. Others are discarded. With this new approach, around 2/3 of the energy consumption can be saved compared with the conventional IEEE 802.11a WLAN system under the same channel conditions and throughput.