Subcarrier Index Coordinate Expression (SICE): An Ultra-low-power OFDM-compatible Wireless Communications Scheme Tailored for Internet of Things

Abstract

This paper describes a novel data modulation method for ultra-low-power wireless uplink communication between a client device of the internet of things (IoT) and a base station (or an access point). The proposed scheme is dubbed as subcarrier index coordinate expression (SICE), which utilizes the indices of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers and waveforms with different phase shifts to represent the information to be sent. SICE is targeted for IoT applications with low data rate requirements, and is especially useful for battery-powered IoT devices demanding low-power communications, due to its characteristics of low peak to average power ratio (PAPR) and high power efficiency in wireless transmission. Unlike ongoing efforts in IoT wireless communications at standardization organizations which focus on simplifying functionalities of the existing protocols to save power, the technique developed in this paper is a fundamentally new and yet OFDM-compatible physical-layer approach that can drastically reduce power consumption of data transmission.