Waveform Generation and Testing with Software-Defined Radios (SDR) and RF instruments Houman Zarrinkoub, PhD. Product Manager Signal Processing & Communications houmanz@mathworks.com 2015 The MathWorks, Inc. 1
Agenda Introduction Radio connectivity Physical connectivity to radio hardware Software setup: Hardware support packages Exchanging data between host computer and radio hardware Case study: Over-the-air testing LTE waveforms carrying voice or video signals with software-defined radios Supported SDRs & RF instruments Summary 2
User Requirements: Real-time Communications Over-the-air Testing, and Software-Defined Radios Customer pains or requests My workflow requires going beyond just simulation. It involves testing and prototyping in real-time with transmitted and captured waveforms. I rely on H/W & S/W platforms/tools for verifying my design. I need to test my receiver with over-the-air received signals. Do you have solutions for over-theair transmission and prototyping? 3
Physical Layer modeling & simulation Transmitter Source Coding Input bits Channel Coding & Modulation Antenna Array (MIMO) Multicarrier Transmitter Hello Large-scale fading (path-loss ) Channel Small-scale fading (Multipath, Doppler effects) Interference Source Decoding Output bits Receiver De- Modulation & Channel Decoding Equalizer Channel estimation Noise Hello 4
Over-the-air testing Input Source Source Coding Input bits Transmitter Channel Coding & Modulation Antenna Array (MIMO) Multicarrier Transmitter Large-scale fading (path-loss ) Over-the-air Transmission & Channel Reception Small-scale fading (Multipath, Doppler effects) Interference Output Source Source Decoding Output bits Receiver De- Modulation & Channel Decoding Equalizer Channel estimation Noise 5
Over-the-air Testing with Radio Hardware Transmit and receive live radio signals MATLAB & Simulink Transmit and receive generated waveforms Configure hardware parameters from MATLAB for a range of center frequencies and sampling rates Analyze acquired I/Q baseband signal with configurable measurement tools Verify and validate your designs based on live radio signals Zynq SDR RF Signal Generator Spectrum Analyzer 6
Physical connectivity to radio hardware 7
Software setup: Hardware support packages 8
Exchange data between host computer and radio hardware 9
Example: Over-the-air testing with SDRs & RF instruments Demo Process original data bits and generate custom digital baseband waveforms in transmitter Transmit waveform using SDR devices or RF instruments Capture received samples with SDR devices or RF instruments Process received samples in receiver. Decode/recover original data 10
Over-the-air testing with SDRs & RF instruments Solution Easily setup wireless prototyping platforms Test your algorithms with real data Use audio and video signals, including encoding and decoding Voice in Voice out Transmitter Receiver Video in Video out 11
Supported SDRs & RF instruments RF Signal Generator RF Spectrum Analyzer Zynq Radio SDR Zynq Radio SDR USRP SDR USRP SDR RTL SDR Transmitter Receiver 12
Learn more about Supported Software- Defined Radios 13
LTE Standard-Compliant Signals: Signal Generation and Transmission LAN/USB/GPIB RF Signal Generator Generate LTE baseband signal in MATLAB Download to Signal Generator Configure and control generation parameters using Instrument Control Toolbox Upconvert IQ waveform to RF and play back over the air Product Requirements: LTE System Toolbox Instrument Control Toolbox 14
LTE Standard-Compliant Signals: Signal Acquisition and Analysis Retrieve IQ data into MATLAB for analysis Perform visualization and analysis in MATLAB Programmatically configure acquisition parameters Downconvert RF Signal to baseband in hardware Spectrum Analyzer LAN/USB/GPIB Product Requirements: LTE System Toolbox Instrument Control Toolbox 15
Summary MATLAB/Simulink for Radio Connectivity Go beyond simulation Actually, transmit & receive wireless signals with MATLAB and Simulink Connect to SDRs Communications System Toolbox hardware support packages Connect to RF instruments Instrument Control Toolbox Perform over-the-air testing Verify your wireless designs 16
Thank You Q & A 2015 The MathWorks, Inc. 17