Design and implementation of a closed-loop controller for a self-adaptive IEEE 802.15.4 DBB

The high demand of low-power radio transceivers for the Internet of Things drives the design of innovative wireless architectures. In this context, the energy efficiency problem arises from the strong variability of the radio channel. As a solution, we propose to dynamically optimize the receiver performance jointly with the power consumption, in order to reach a low-margin operating mode. For this purpose, we have developed an IEEE 802.15.4 Digital Baseband (DBB) with a built-in tunable subsampling mechanism. This paper describes the design and the hardware implementation of a low-complexity controller for managing this adaptive system. It explains the basic methodology and points out some practical considerations for a robust and efficient implementation. As a result, the paper shows the impact of the controller design on the baseband power consumption.