Patent ID: 8504101

Claim:
A multimode wireless communication apparatus to support a plurality of wireless communication systems and communicate by switching between wireless communication systems in the plurality of wireless communication systems, the apparatus comprising: a reconfigurable signal processor that supports the switching of the wireless communication systems by switching circuit functions according to one of a first switching method of switching circuit functions by controlling circuit parameters and a second switching method of switching circuit functions based on reconfiguration by rewriting software; a switch setting judging unit that determines a switch setting which defines as to which one of the first switching method and the second switching method is used to switch between the wireless communication systems in the plurality of wireless communication systems, the determination being based on (a) a number of times the wireless communication apparatus switches between the wireless communication systems in a predetermined unit of time and a duration of communication by each wireless communication system, (b) preliminarily-stored information about power consumption required by the switching between the wireless communication systems, and (c) preliminarily-stored information about power consumption required for each wireless communication system, such that the power consumption to be required for the switching between the wireless communication systems and for communication is minimized; and a controller that controls change of the circuit functions in the reconfigurable signal processor according to one of the first switching method and the second switching method based on the switch setting determined in the switch setting judging unit.