This article puts the spotlight on the receiver front-end (RFE), an integral part of any wireless device that information theory typically idealizes into a mere addition of noise. While this idealization was sound in the past, as operating frequencies, bandwidths, and antenna counts rise, a soaring amount of power is required for the RFE to behave accordingly. Containing this surge in power expenditure exposes a harsher behavior on the part of the RFE (more noise, nonlinearities, and coarse quantization), setting up a tradeoff between the spectral efficiency under such nonidealities and the efficiency in the use of energy by the RFE. With the urge for radically better power consumptions and energy efficiencies in 6G, this emerges as an issue on which information theory can cast light at a fundamental level. More broadly, this article advocates the interest of having information theory embrace the device power consumption in its analyses. In turn, this calls for new models and abstractions such as the ones herein put together for the RFE, and for a more holistic perspective.

翻译：本文聚焦于接收机前端（RFE）——信息论通常将其理想化为仅附加噪声的无线设备核心组件。尽管这种理想化在过去是合理的，但随着工作频率、带宽和天线数量的提升，射频前端为保持理想行为所需的功耗急剧增加。抑制这种功耗增长会暴露射频前端更严苛的特性（更多噪声、非线性效应和粗糙量化），从而在非理想条件下的频谱效率与射频前端能量利用效率之间形成权衡。面对6G对功耗和能量效率的根本性优化需求，这一课题成为信息论能在基础层面阐明的问题。更广义而言，本文倡导将器件功耗纳入信息论分析框架的重要意义，这需要建立如本文为射频前端构建的新模型与抽象方法，并采用更整体的研究视角。