Low-power SDRs through cross-layer control: concepts at work

Wireless access schemes was implemented on software defined radios (SDRs) in the future. In mobile terminals, SDRs should couple a high functional flexibility to low power operation. A two-step approach is advocated in this context. First, energy-scalability is introduced in the SDR design. Secondly, intelligent run-time cross-layer control is introduced to enable low power operation, by exploiting this scalability as well as the dynamics in the system. As a result, SDRs can be realized achieving a power consumption which can be comparable with dedicated radios, both in standby/idle mode or when transmitting or receiving data. This concept is validated on a transaction-level model (TLM) of our SDR platform, showing architectural integration and paving the way towards chip instantiation.