Real-Time Use-Aware Adaptive RF Transceiver Systems for Energy Efficiency Under BER Constraints

Modern radio front ends are required to operate over diverse channel conditions requiring the incorporation of significant performance overheads into their design. This results in significantly higher power consumption over most of the operational period since the worst case channels are not statistically prevalent. Adaptive systems solve this problem by adapting the performance and power consumption depending on channel conditions. In this paper, it is demonstrated that depending upon the throughput requirements of the system multiple low-power adaptation modes can be designed. These modes ensure either highest throughput operation or lowest energy-per-bit operation. The operation of these modes is demonstrated in simulation using multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) receiver and transmitter front ends. Subsequently, the concepts are demonstrated in hardware for both MIMO and single-input-single-output front ends.