Power efficient signal acquisition with multiple receive antennas
View Patent ↗In a wireless device having multiple receive antennas, wireless medium sensing operations are performed using a reduced number of receive antennas. Receive chains associated with unused receive antennas are deactivated to reduce power consumption within the device.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of analog receive chains to process signals received from a wireless medium; and
a controller to activate M receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains during data receive operations and less than M receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains during medium sensing operations, wherein M is a positive integer greater than 1 and receive chains that are not used during a medium sensing operation are deactivated during said medium sensing operation to conserve energy.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said controller to activate only one of said receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains during medium sensing operations.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said controller to activate multiple receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains during medium sensing operations.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said controller to select one or more receive chains from said plurality of analog receive chains to use during a medium sensing operation based on a predetermined criterion.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said controller to select one or more receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains to use during medium sensing operations based on information from a previously received data packet.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said controller to select one or more receive chains within said plurality of analog receive chains to use during medium sensing operations using a round robin approach.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said apparatus is configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard; and
said medium sensing operations include clear channel assessment (CCA) operations.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
said plurality of analog receive chains includes M receive chains.
9. A method comprising:
providing a wireless device having multiple receive antennas, each of said multiple receive antennas having a corresponding receive chain, said wireless device to perform both data receive operations and medium sensing operations;
activating M receive chains within said wireless device during data receive operations, wherein M is a positive integer greater than 1; and
activating less than M receive chains within said wireless device during medium sensing operations to conserve energy.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
said less than M receive chains includes only one receive chain.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
said less than M receive chains includes multiple receive chains.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
said wireless device includes a total of M receive chains.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
said wireless device is configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard; and
said medium sensing operations include clear channel assessment (CCA) operations.
14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining which receive chains within said wireless device to activate during a medium sensing operation based on a predetermined criterion.
15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining which receive chains within said wireless device to activate during a medium sensing operation based on information from a previously received data packet.
16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining which receive chains within said wireless device to activate during a medium sensing operation based on a round robin sequence.
17. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of antennas including at least one dipole antenna;
a plurality of receive chains to process signals received from a wireless medium, each receive chain in said plurality of receive chains being coupled to an antenna in said plurality of antennas; and
a controller to activate M receive chains within said plurality of receive chains during data receive operations and less than M receive chains within said plurality of receive chains during medium sensing operations, wherein M is a positive integer greater than 1 and receive chains that are not used during a medium sensing operation are deactivated during said medium sensing operation to conserve energy.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein:
said controller to select one or more receive chains from said plurality of receive chains to use during a medium sensing operation based on a predetermined criterion.
19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein:
said apparatus is configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard; and
said medium sensing operations include clear channel assessment (CCA) operations.
20. An article comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing platform, operate to:
activate M receive chains within a wireless device during data receive operations, wherein M is a positive integer greater than 1, wherein said wireless device includes multiple receive antennas, each of said multiple receive antennas having a corresponding receive chain; and
activate less than M receive chains within said wireless device during medium sensing operations to conserve energy.
21. The article of claim 20 , wherein:
said wireless device is configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard; and
said medium sensing operations include clear channel assessment (CCA) operations.
22. The article of claim 20 , wherein said instructions further operate to:
determine which receive chains within said wireless device to activate during a medium sensing operation based on a predetermined criterion.