An EFOM for cross-layer optimization towards low-power and high-performance wireless networks

This paper presents an Equivalent-Figure-of-Merit (EFOM) for designing and evaluating a wireless system towards low power and high performance. Relevant factors like delay, minimum latency, overhead length of a package, package length, data rate, bit-error-rate (BER), pre-receiving time of the receiver, average duty cycle and electronics performance factor are synthesized within a unique model. Comparing to other FOMs like energy per bit E_bit, this EFOM is able to rank the overall performance of a wireless network concerning the information not only power efficiency but also about communication quality (speed, BER, wake-up time, etc.), communication effectiveness and user's satisfaction. Applying this model to the system design, a 60 GHz self-demodulating receiver is designed and optimized, which obtains high-speed versatile performance in a low-traffic wireless network with better power efficiency comparing to other low-power wireless interface, e.g. Bluetooth and so on.