Packet classification based power saving receiver

A receiver apparatus, comprising:

• a receive unit;
• and
• a controller;
• wherein the receive unit and the controller are configured to receive wireless messages according to a wireless protocol;
• wherein the receive unit is configured with a receive frame state and an ignore frame state, the receive unit further configured to:
• when in the receive frame state, receive radio frequency (RF) signals associated with an incoming frame and to provide decoded information concerning the incoming frame;
• and
• when in the ignore frame state, perform one or more of, (i) not receiving RF signals associated with the incoming frame, and (ii) not decoding RF signals associated with the incoming frame;
• wherein the controller is configured to selectively control whether the receive unit is in the receive frame state or the ignore frame state, wherein the controller is configured to control the receive unit to enter the ignore frame state upon determining that (i) the incoming frame is to be filtered and (ii) a desired ratio between a switching time and an amount of time expected to be required to receive a remainder of the incoming frame exceeds a threshold, and to return the receive unit to the receive frame state in time to perform end of frame processing on the incoming frame consistent with the wireless protocol.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a wireless receiver, a portion of an incoming frame;
• deciding whether to process the incoming frame or to ignore the incoming frame, wherein deciding to ignore the incoming frame is a function of analyzing information gathered by partially receiving and partially decoding the incoming frame, wherein the information comprises at least an intended target for the incoming frame, an expected amount of time required to receive the incoming frame, and an expected power savings, wherein the expected power savings is computed as a function of a frame duration and switching times for one or more sub-systems;
• and
• upon deciding to ignore the incoming frame, controlling the one or more sub-systems in the wireless receiver to change state from a higher power receive state to a lower power state so that a remainder of incoming radio frequency (RF) signals associated with the incoming frame is not decoded by the wireless receiver.