Real-time use-aware adaptive MIMO RF receiver systems for energy efficiency under BER constraints

Abstract

Modern MIMO RF transceiver systems are designed to operate reliably under diverse channel conditions leading to incorporation of significant performance margins in RF transceiver systems. In general, across dynamically varying channel conditions, the fidelity of the RF front end devices can be traded-off against power consumption without compromising system-level BER limits. In this work such a real-time performance vs. power consumption modulation of RF front-end devices in MIMO systems is demonstrated. Through a multi-dimensional optimization technique, power-optimal configuration of the frontend for varying channel conditions are created. Additionally multiple low-power operating modes for the MIMO system are proposed depending on the performance metric (data rate or energy-per-bit) that need to be optimized for different applications.