Dynamic power modulation in baseband OFDM signal processor using application driven metrics: Image transmission and processing

In this research we study how power can be saved in the baseband processor of an OFDM transceiver from the knowledge of an end application to which the transmitted or received data is applied. The specific applications that we study are image and video transmission across a wireless link. It is assumed that edge detection (image) and object tracking (video) is to be performed on the received data. Power is saved by reducing the wordlength of computation in the filters and FFT functions of the baseband processor and simultaneously reducing the supply voltage. Power modulation is done on the basis of closed-loop feedback control using a control law that continuously "tunes" the baseband processor for minimum power using the wireless channel quality, the image/video quality and the current quality of baseband signal processing as input parameters. It is assumed that the image/video quality metric is computed by the image acquisition system and transmitted along with data.