TWI486022B - Communication device with adjustable consuming power and method thereof and ethernet communication device - Google Patents

Description

Communication device capable of adjusting power consumption and method thereof and Ethernet communication device

The invention relates to a technology for reducing power consumption, in particular to a communication device capable of adjusting power consumption and a method thereof.

In order to meet the specifications of high-speed communication devices and to respond to various possible channel factors, the general circuit design is mostly achieved by standards that can meet more stringent requirements. For example, the analogy to the linearity of the digital converter (ADC) is increased, or the decoding capability of the decoding circuit is increased to enable the channel to be affected. However, while achieving higher standards, it also pays extra power for the circuit.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device and method for adjusting power consumption that can reduce power consumption while meeting communication standard specifications.

Therefore, the communication device capable of adjusting power consumption of the present invention is adapted to receive a received data from another communication device, comprising: a receiver comprising an analog to digital converter and a decoding circuit, the analog to digital converter The received data is converted into a digital signal for decoding by the decoding circuit; and a control circuit obtains a received signal representative of the communication quality of the receiver based on the digital signal, and based on the received indicator Receiving an indicator to determine the operation of the analog to digital converter and the decoding circuit; when the control circuit determines that the received indicator meets a reference range, a reference current is adjusted according to the receiving indicator to reduce the analog to Digital turn The linearity of the converter also reduces the decoding capability of the decoding circuit according to the reception indicator.

The communication method for improving the quality of the connection of the present invention is suitable for causing a communication device to receive a received data from another communication device, and the communication device comprises a receiver including an analog to digital converter and a decoding circuit. The method comprises the steps of: providing a receiving indicator; converting the received data into a digital signal by the analog to digital converter for decoding by the decoding circuit; calculating a received index according to the digital signal; Receiving an indicator and the received indicator to determine an operation ratio of the analog to the digital converter and the decoding circuit; when determining that the received indicator meets a reference range, a reference voltage is adjusted according to the receiving indicator to reduce the Analogy to the linearity of the digital converter will also reduce the decoding capability of the decoding circuit based on the received indicator.

And the Ethernet transmission device with adjustable power consumption of the present invention is configured to transmit a transmission data and receive a reception data, comprising: a transmitter for transmitting the transmission data; and a receiver for receiving the reception And a power adjustment control circuit for determining whether the transmitted and/or received data is a no-load data conforming to an Ethernet protocol, and determining that the transmitting and/or receiving data is the same as the Ethernet When the data of the road protocol is empty, the power consumption of the transmitter and/or receiver is reduced. In addition, the power adjustment control circuit may also determine whether the corresponding importance indicator or length indicator falls within a preset interval.

The foregoing and other technical content, features and effects of the present invention are The detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.

Generally, between the communication devices 100 and 100A, a packet data is transmitted through a transmission medium, and when the packet data is not transmitted, an idle data is exchanged to maintain communication with each other. Since the communication device 100, 100A can tolerate different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for different interchange contents, it is not necessary to maintain a fixed communication quality throughout the entire interchange process.

The invention is based on this concept, dynamically adjusts the working condition of the communication device 100 according to the interchanged content, in order to realize the data exchange between the communication devices 100, 110A on the premise of satisfying the communication standard specification and consuming the minimum power.

Referring to FIG. 1, a preferred embodiment of the power consuming communication device 100 of the present invention is adapted to exchange a network data (which may be packet data or no-load data) with another communication device 100A, including a plurality of transmitters 1. 1A, 1B, 1C, a plurality of receivers 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, a hybrid module 3, an echo canceller 4, a near-end crosstalk (NEXT) canceller 5, A far-end crosstalk (FEXT) canceller 6 and a control circuit 7. Each of the transmitters 1, 1A to 1C includes a digit to analog converter (DAC) 11, 11A to 11C, and a transmitting entity unit 12, 12A to 12C (in this example, a physical coding sublayer (PCS)), and receives The device 2 includes an automatic gain controller (AAGC) 21, an analog to digital converter (ADC) 22, a subtractor 23, an equalization device 24, a decoding circuit 25, and a receiving entity unit 26 (this example refers to PCS). The equalization device 24 has a feedforward equalizer 241, a feedback equalizer 242, a determiner 243, a first subtraction unit 244, and a second Subtraction unit 245.

Each transmitter 1, 1A~1C generates a source signal in the form of a digital digit, and then provides a conversion by transmitting the physical unit 12, 12A~12C and the DAC 11, 11A~11C (converting the digital form into an analog form) A data is transmitted to the hybrid module 3 as a network material that is delivered to another communication device 100A. Moreover, the echo canceller 4 performs a complex tap operation based on the output of the transmitting entity unit 12 to output an echo cancel signal. The near-end crosstalk canceller 5 outputs a near-end canceling signal based on the complex-order operation of the outputs of the transmitting physical units 12A-12C.

The hybrid module 3 separates the plurality of received data from the network material from the other communication device 100A. The AAGC 21 performs gain adjustment on one of the received data, and then the ADC 22 converts the gain-adjusted signal into a digital signal. The subtracter 23 subtracts the digital signal from the echo cancellation signal and the near-end cancellation signal as an output, and the equalization device 24 outputs an equalization signal based on the output of the subtractor 23 and a far-end cancellation signal for decoding. The circuit 25 performs decoding and is converted by the receiving entity unit 26. On the other hand, other received data will be transmitted to the receivers 2A~2C, and the far-end crosstalk canceller 6 will be controlled by the determiners 243A-C of the receivers 2A~2C in a complex order operation. The far end offset signal is generated.

In the equalization device 24, the feedforward equalizer 241 receives the output of the subtractor 23 and performs a feedforward equalization process to generate a feedforward signal. The first subtraction unit 244 subtracts the feedforward signal from the far-end cancellation signal and the output from the feedback equalizer 242 for the determiner 243 to discern the equalization signal. And the inverse product equalizer 242 generates feedback by performing equalization processing based on the equalization signal. Out. The feedforward/feedback equalization process is a complex-order operation, and is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains, and details are not described herein.

In order to achieve data exchange with minimum power consumption, the communication device 100 executes a communication method, which calculates the communication ratio of the equalization device 24 by the control circuit 7 to understand the current communication quality, thereby adjusting the system operation. The signal-to-noise ratio is obtained by the second subtraction unit 245 calculating the difference before and after the discrimination of the determiner 243. The control circuit 7 then determines the signal to noise ratio of the equalization device 24 based on this difference and the equalization signal.

The communication device 100 further performs a communication method to cause the control circuit 7 to receive a mode selection command and use the calculated signal-to-noise ratio to determine which of the analog circuits or digital circuits operate to change the power consumption. Among them, the analog circuit that will be adjusted refers to the DAC 11 and the ADC 22, and the digital circuit that will be adjusted refers to the echo canceller 4, the NEXT canceller 5, the FEXT canceller 6, and the feedforward equalizer. 241, feedback equalizer 242 and decoding circuit 25.

Mode selection command

The foregoing mode selection command is stored in a storage unit (not shown) coupled to the control circuit 7, and includes three possibilities: "data form", "package importance", and "packet length".

When the mode selection command includes "data form", the control circuit 7 checks a transmission status indicator and a reception status indicator. The transmission status indicator will show that the transmission data transmitted by the transmitter 1 belongs to the packet data or the no-load data; and the reception status indicator shows that the reception data received by the receiver 2 belongs to In the case of packet data or no-load data. If it belongs to the packet data, the corresponding status indicator is too high; if it belongs to the no-load data, the corresponding status indicator is low.

When the mode selection command includes "package importance", the control circuit 7 checks a transmission importance indicator and a reception importance indicator. For example, if the network data of the packet data is an online banking password that does not allow an error, the corresponding importance index is high; if the packet data is a general video signal, the corresponding importance index is low.

When the mode selection command includes "packet length", the control circuit 7 checks a transmission length indicator and a reception length indicator. Since the number of sending and receiving errors increases with the length of the packet, the longer the packet length, the higher the corresponding length index; the shorter the packet length, the lower the corresponding length index.

It is worth noting that each indicator can be divided into multiple levels, and the higher the indicator level, the higher the required communication quality. Moreover, the indicators may be provided by a computer system having a communication device 100 built in, or from the communication device 100 itself. For example, the transmission status indicator and the transmission length indicator are from the transmitting entity unit 12, and the reception status indicator and the reception length indicator are from the receiving entity unit 26.

In order to cover various possible mode selection commands, this example refers to a transmission indicator to generally refer to a transmission status indicator, a transmission importance indicator, and a transmission length indicator; and a reception indicator to generally refer to a reception status indicator, a reception importance indicator, and a reception. Length indicator. Furthermore, for each possible mode selection command, the transmission indicator will only reflect the transmission data transmitted by the transmitter 1, and the reception indicator will only reflect the reception data received by the receiver 2, therefore, the two indicators are not necessarily There is an equal relationship.

Adjust work situation

When the communication device 100, 100A exchanges the packet data, in order to ensure accurate data reception, it is often necessary to consume a large amount of power to improve the communication quality. However, when the transmission/reception index is low, since a poor signal-to-noise ratio can be tolerated, it is not necessary to consume power excessively, as long as the communication quality for keeping communication between the communication devices 100 and 100A can be maintained.

If the transmission indicator is low, the power consumption of the transmitter 1 is lowered. That is, a reference voltage is lowered to reduce the transmit power of the DAC 11 and a reference current is lowered to reduce the linearity of the DAC 11.

If the reception index is low, the power consumption of the receiver 2 and the offsetters 4-6 is lowered. That is, another reference current is ramped down to reduce the linearity of the ADC 22, the decoding capability of the decoding circuit 25 is reduced (the power consumption will also be reduced), and the equalizers 241, 242 and the The number of taps of the offsetters 4~6. Of course, after adjusting the order, it is necessary to update the correlation coefficient. In another embodiment, the power consumption can also be reduced by stopping the updating of the equalizers 241, 242 and the coefficients of the offsetters 4-6. In yet another embodiment, only the order or coefficient of the equalizers 241, 242 and the FEXT canceller 6 will be stopped.

Of course, if the control circuit 7 is operated in the opposite direction as described above, the power consumption of each circuit can be increased. That is, the reference voltage is raised to increase the transmit power of the DAC 11 and the reference current is boosted to enhance the linearity of the DAC 11; another reference current is boosted to enhance the linearity of the ADC 22, and the decoding capability of the decoding circuit 25 is boosted (power) The consumption will also increase accordingly, and the order of the equalizers 241, 242 and the offsetters 4-6 will be increased.

Moreover, it is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains: for a decoding circuit 25 that is a Viterbi decoder, the decoding capability can be improved by increasing the trace back length; The decoding circuit 25 of the check code (LDPC) decoder can improve the decoding capability by increasing the number of iterations; and for the equalizers 241, 242 and the offsetters 4-6, the minimum average can be used. The algorithm (LMS), recursive least squares (RLS), etc. are used to update the coefficients and change the order.

Referring to FIG. 2, the flow of the control circuit 7 to adjust the power consumption is as follows:

Step 81: The control circuit 7 evaluates the required communication quality according to the transmission/reception index, and further determines a first reference value and a second reference value that is higher than the first reference value. In this embodiment, the relationship between the first and second reference values and the sending/receiving index is preset. For example, when the value of the sending/receiving indicator is determined, the first and second reference values are correspondingly determined. The implementation of the relationship can be, but is not limited to, implemented in a look-up table. In addition, in this embodiment, the higher the required communication quality evaluated by the indicators, the higher the first reference value.

Step 82: Determine the signal-to-noise ratio of the receivers 2, 2A and 2C according to the method of obtaining the signal-to-noise ratio mentioned above, and select the worst one from among them.

Step 83: Determine whether the selected signal-to-noise ratio is less than the first reference value (ie, does not meet a reference range). If yes, go to step 84; if no, skip to step 85.

Step 84: At this time, the signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than the first reference value, indicating that each circuit does not operate in an excessive condition, so the operating condition is not adjusted and the process proceeds to step 88.

Step 85: At this time, the signal-to-noise ratio is not less than the first reference value, and each circuit is displayed. Under this working condition, it can meet the required communication quality or achieve the predetermined performance, so you can try to adjust the working situation to reduce the power consumption. And the adjustment range depends on the difference between the selected signal-to-noise ratio and the first reference value or according to a fixed decrease.

Step 86: Determine whether the selected signal-to-noise ratio is less than the second reference value. If yes, go to step 87; if no, skip back to step 85.

Step 87: At this time, the signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than the second reference value, indicating that each circuit may meet the required communication quality under the working condition, but the performance may not be sufficient to effectively ensure high communication quality, so adjust the working condition to increase the power consumption. . And the adjustment range depends on the difference between the selected signal-to-noise ratio and the second reference value or according to a fixed increase.

Step 88: End.

In this embodiment, when the mode selection command includes "package importance", if the transmission importance index is low, the control circuit 7 lowers the power consumption of the transmitter 1 according to the judgment and adjustment steps of the signal-to-noise ratio. If the receiving importance index is low, the control circuit 7 reduces the power consumption of the receiver 2 and the offsetters 4-6 according to the judgment and adjustment steps of the signal ratio, but in this embodiment, the communication device is avoided. The influence of 100 is large, so that the coefficients of the FEXT canceller 6 and the equalizers 241, 242 need to be re-converged, so the order of the FEXT canceller 6 and the equalizers 241, 242 is not changed. It is not intended to limit the invention.

When the mode selection command includes the "packet length", in order to avoid the waste of the retransmission bandwidth caused by the packet transmission and reception error, the control circuit 7 also increases in the same manner according to the transmission/reception length index when the packet is long (high indicator). Work The rate is consumed, and the power consumption is reduced when the packet is short (low indicator), and the order of the FEXT canceller 6 and the equalizers 241, 242 is not changed.

It should be noted that although the foregoing description is based on the signal-to-noise ratio, the control circuit 7 may calculate the one-bit error rate (BER) as the basis for power adjustment, or any one that can represent the receiver 2. Communication quality indicators. Moreover, the node for the control circuit 7 to obtain the signal-to-noise ratio is not limited to the above, as long as it can reflect the node of the current communication quality.

It should be noted that, referring to the foregoing description, the power consumption adjusting device 100 of the foregoing embodiment is an Ethernet communication device with adjustable power consumption, and the control circuit 7 is a power adjustment control circuit. And the control circuit 7 determines that the law for transmitting and/or receiving data is at least one of the following three: the first rule, whether it conforms to an unloaded data of the IEEE 802.3 standard protocol, and the second rule; Whether the corresponding importance indicator falls within a predetermined interval; and the second rule determines whether the corresponding length indicator falls within a predetermined interval.

After determining the characteristics of the transmitted and/or received data, the control circuit 7 determines whether to adjust the power consumption of the communication device 100.

In summary, the control circuit 7 of the communication device 100 of the present invention determines the required communication quality according to the content of the network data, and dynamically adjusts the working conditions of each circuit by judging whether the signal-to-noise ratio meets the desired communication quality. The power consumption is effectively reduced, so that the object of the present invention can be achieved.

However, the above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention cannot be limited thereto, that is, the patent application according to the present invention The scope of the invention and the equivalent equivalents and modifications of the invention are still within the scope of the invention.

100‧‧‧Communication device

241‧‧‧Feed-feed equalizer

100A‧‧‧Communication device

242‧‧‧Feedback equalizer

1‧‧‧transmitter

243‧‧‧Judge

1A~C‧‧‧transmitter

243A~C‧‧‧Judge

11‧‧‧Digital to analog converter

244‧‧‧First Subtraction Unit

11A~C‧‧‧Digital to Analog Converter

245‧‧‧Second Subtraction Unit

12‧‧‧Send physical unit

25‧‧‧Decoding circuit

12A~C‧‧‧Send physical unit

26‧‧‧Receiving entity units

2‧‧‧ Receiver

3‧‧‧Mixed modules

2A~C‧‧‧ Receiver

4‧‧‧Echo offsetter

21‧‧‧Automatic Gain Controller

5‧‧‧ Near-end crosstalk canceller

22‧‧‧ Analog to Digital Converter

6‧‧‧ Far-end crosstalk canceller

23‧‧‧Subtractor

7‧‧‧Control circuit

24‧‧‧equalization device

81~88‧‧‧Steps

1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of a communication device of the present invention; and FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the control circuit of the preferred embodiment adjusting power consumption of each circuit.

100‧‧‧Communication device

241‧‧‧Feed-feed equalizer

100A‧‧‧Communication device

242‧‧‧Feedback equalizer

1‧‧‧transmitter

243‧‧‧Judge

1A~C‧‧‧transmitter

243A~C‧‧‧Judge

11‧‧‧Digital to analog converter

244‧‧‧First Subtraction Unit

11A~C‧‧‧Digital to Analog Converter

245‧‧‧Second Subtraction Unit

12‧‧‧Send physical unit

25‧‧‧Decoding circuit

12A~C‧‧‧Send physical unit

26‧‧‧Receiving entity units

2‧‧‧ Receiver

3‧‧‧Mixed modules

2A~C‧‧‧ Receiver

4‧‧‧Echo offsetter

21‧‧‧Automatic Gain Controller

5‧‧‧ Near-end crosstalk canceller

22‧‧‧ Analog to Digital Converter

6‧‧‧ Far-end crosstalk canceller

23‧‧‧Subtractor

7‧‧‧Control circuit

24‧‧‧equalization device

Claims (21)

An Ethernet communication device capable of reducing power consumption for transmitting a transmission data and receiving a reception data, comprising: a transmitter for transmitting the transmission data; and a receiver for receiving the received data; And a power adjustment control circuit for dynamically adjusting the operation of the communication device according to the transmission data of the transmitter and the receiver and the received data, wherein the power adjustment control circuit selects a command according to a mode and receives a signal The indicator dynamically adjusts the working condition of the transmitter or the receiver, wherein the mode selection command determines the communication quality required by the Ethernet communication device according to the transmission data or the content of the received data, and the mode selection indicator Determining whether the communication quality of the receiver conforms to a range of predetermined reference values; wherein the power adjustment control circuit does not adjust the power consumption of the transmitter or the receiver when the communication quality of the receiver meets the range of the predetermined reference value When the communication quality of the receiver does not meet the range of the predetermined reference value, the power adjustment control circuit adjusts The transmitter or the receiver is the power consumption. The device of claim 1, wherein the power adjustment control circuit checks a transmission/reception indicator according to the mode selection command, and determines a range of the predetermined reference value according to the transmission/reception index. The device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined reference value range includes a first reference value and a second reference value that is higher than the first reference value. The device of claim 2, wherein the preset reference value is determined according to the transmission/reception index. The device of claim 1, wherein the received indicator is a signal to interference ratio or a one-dimensional error rate. The device of claim 1, wherein the mode selection command comprises determining whether the transmitted and/or received data is an empty data conforming to an Ethernet protocol. The device of claim 6, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces the power consumption of the analog circuit of the transmitter when determining that the transmission data is the no-load data. The device of claim 6, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces the power consumption of the decoding circuit of one of the receivers when determining that the received data is the no-load data. The device of claim 6, wherein the power adjustment control circuit stops updating the coefficients of the at least one digital circuit of the receiver when determining that the received data is the no-load data, thereby lowering the receiver Power consumption. The device of claim 6, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces a near-end crosstalk canceller or an echo canceller of the receiver when determining that the received data is the no-load data. The operating order is used to reduce the power consumption of the receiver. The device of claim 6, wherein the Ethernet communication protocol is compliant with the IEEE 802.3 standard specification. Such as the device described in claim 1, wherein the mode selects The decision is made to determine whether one of the importance indicators corresponding to the transmitted and/or received data falls within a predetermined interval. The device of claim 12, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces the power consumption of the analog circuit of the transmitter when determining that the importance index of the transmission data falls within the preset interval. The device of claim 12, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces the power consumption of the decoding circuit of one of the receivers when determining that the importance indicator of the received data falls within the preset interval. The device of claim 12, wherein the power adjustment control circuit stops updating the coefficients of the at least one digital circuit of the receiver when determining that the importance index of the received data falls within the preset interval. Reduce the power consumption of the receiver. The device of claim 12, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces a near-end crosstalk canceller of the receiver when determining that the importance index of the received data falls within the preset interval The operating order of an echo canceller to reduce the power consumption of the receiver. The device of claim 1, wherein the mode selection command comprises determining whether a length indicator corresponding to the transmitted and/or received data falls within a predetermined interval. The device of claim 17, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces the power consumption of the analog circuit of the transmitter when determining that the length indicator of the transmission data falls within the preset interval. The device of claim 17, wherein the power adjustment control circuit determines that the length indicator of the received data falls within the preset interval At the same time, the power consumption of the decoding circuit of one of the receivers is lowered. The device of claim 17, wherein the power adjustment control circuit stops updating the coefficients of the at least one digital circuit of the receiver when determining that the length indicator of the received data falls within the preset interval, thereby adjusting Drop the power consumption of the receiver. The device of claim 17, wherein the power adjustment control circuit reduces a near-end crosstalk canceller or one of the receivers when determining that the length indicator of the received data falls within the preset interval The operating order of the echo canceller to reduce the power consumption of the receiver.