An energy-efficient IEEE 802.15.4 tunable digital baseband targeting self-adaptive WPANs

The emerging market of the Internet of Things is constrained by the energy-efficiency of each layers having a role in Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). In this context, adaptivity is a key technique to address the need of low-power consumption in unpredictable environments, by providing at any time a low-margin operating mode. For this purpose, the paper presents an IEEE 802.15.4 digital baseband with a tunable computation subsampling mechanism built-in. The described architecture, simulated in a 65 nm LP-CMOS process, drains only 82.9 μA in average at its best operating point against 208 μA in normal mode. Thus, it enables a power consumption reduction of up to 58 % that can be exploited in case of favorable receiving conditions, as part of a self-adaptive wireless network.