MAPro: A Tiny Processor for Reconfigurable Baseband Modulation Mapping

The need to integrate multiple wireless communication protocols into a single low-cost flexible hardware platform is prompted by the increasing number of emerging communication protocols and applications in modern embedded systems. The modulation mapping scheme, one of the key components in the communication baseband, varies differing communication protocols. This paper presents an efficient tiny processor, named MAPro, which is programmable at runtime for differing modulation schemes. MAPro costs little in area, consumes less power compared to other programmable solutions, and is sufficiently fast to satisfy even the most demanding of Software Defined Radio (SDR) applications. The proposed method is flexible (when compared to ASICs) and suitable for mobile applications (when compared to FPGAs and ASIP processors). The area of MAPro is only 25% of the combined ASIC implementation of multiple individual modulation mapping circuits, while the throughput meets specification. Power consumption is 110% more than the ASIC implementation on average. MAPro outperforms both FPGA and ASIP processor significantly in area and power consumption. In terms of throughput, MAPro is similar to FPGA, and outperforms the ASIP processor.