Patent ID: 8908544

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a radio frequency unit including a transmit circuit configured to transmit radio frequency signals to a remote device using an antenna, and a receive circuit configured to receive radio frequency signals from the remote device using the antenna; a baseband unit configured to analyze radio frequency signals received by the radio frequency unit, and provide channel quality information concerning a channel associated with the radio frequency signals; and a MAC logic configured to control the radio frequency unit to operate in either a power save mode or in a high power mode based, at least in part, on the channel quality information, wherein during the power save mode the radio frequency unit uses a reduced power to actively communicate with the remote device, wherein the channel quality information includes signal strength information that indicates a strength of the radio frequency signals, and wherein the MAC logic is configured to control the radio frequency unit to operate in the power save mode upon determining that the signal strength information indicates that a signal strength of the radio frequency signals is below a pre-determined signal strength threshold, and wherein the predetermined signal strength threshold is based, at least in part, on a sustainable post-equalizer signal strength for a pre-determined data rate.