Ultra Low-Power Miniaturized Flexible Radio Optimized for Long-Term Battery Operation

The DMEA needs a flexible, miniature, reconfigurable radio suitable for long-term operation (one year or more) on battery power and capable of being embedded in data collector nodes for deployed sensor arrays, sensors, and other applications where very low power consumption combined with flexibility is desired. To address flexibility in radios, Williams-Pyro has designed a highly innovative software-defined radio system. We propose to optimize our existing software-defined radio architecture and develop an Embeddable, Power Efficient, Robust, and Reconfigurable (Emperor) Radio, a battery-operated radio that can be deployed in wireless sensor network applications. Our solution includes implementing innovative power management, developing ultra-low-power software defined radios, and integrating the elements of the sensing, communication, and networking subsystems in a single System-on-a-Chip (SOC) package. The wireless nodes can also be networked using mesh routing protocols to increase the area of surveillance and further reduce power consumption and communication failures. Emperor Radio consists of an ultra-low-power transceiver with software-reconfigurable modem and reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) front-end as well as a low-power processor that interfaces with the transceiver and input/output (I/O) and controls I/O subsystem. The resulting miniature, lightweight, low-power radios will reduce communication failures while maintaining a robust, flexible system for reliable communication.