A coarse-grained dynamically reconfigurable MAC processor for power-sensitive multi-standard devices

Nabi, Syed Waqar (2009) A coarse-grained dynamically reconfigurable MAC processor for power-sensitive multi-standard devices. EngD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

DRMP, a Dynamically Reconfigurable MAC Processor, is an innovative, dynamically reconfigurable System-on-Chip architecture. The architecture exploits substantial overlaps in the functionality of different wireless MAC layers. Its flexibility is specialized for addressing the requirements of the MAC layer of wireless standards. It is targeted at consumer, multi-standard, handheld devices, and its design is meant to address the balance of flexibility and power-efficiency that this target market demands. The DRMP reconfigures packet-by-packet on the fly, allowing execution of concurrent protocol modes on a single hardware co-processor. An interrupt-driven programming model has also been presented and shown to implement the protocol state-machine of the three protocols on a CPU. These features will allow the DRMP to replace three MAC processors in a hand-held device. The most innovative component of the DRMP architecture is its Interface and Reconfiguration Controller. It uses a combination of asynchronous controllers to dynamically reconfigure the functional units in the architecture and delegate MAC tasks to them. The architecture has been modeled in Simulink at cycle-approximate abstraction. Results of simulations involving transmission and reception of packets have been presented, showing that the platform concurrently handles three protocol streams, reconfigures dynamically, yet meets and exceeds the protocol timing constraints, all at a moderate frequency. Its heterogeneous and coarse-grained functional units, limited connectivity requirements between these units, and proportionally large time that these resources are idle, promise a very modest power-consumption, suitable for mobile devices, while offering flexibility to implement different MAC protocols.

• Item Type: Thesis (EngD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: wireless MAC, wireless communications, reconfigurable computing, coarse-grained architecture, multi-standard devices, heterogeneous architecture, dynamic reconfiguration, system-on-chip
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
• Supervisor's Name: Vanderbauwhede, Dr. Wim
• Date of Award: 2009
• Depositing User: Mr Syed Waqar Nabi
• Unique ID: glathesis:2009-865
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Jun 2009
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:27
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/865