Design and Validation of a Software Defined Radio Testbed for DVB-T Transmission

This paper describes the design and validation of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) testbed, which can be used for Digital Television transmission using the Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard. In order to generate a DVB-T-compliant signal with low computational complexity, we design an SDR architecture that uses the C/C++ language and exploits multithreading and vectorized instructions. Then, we transmit the generated DVB-T signal in real time, using a common PC equipped with multicore central processing units (CPUs) and a commercially available SDR modem board. The proposed SDR architecture has been validated using fixed TV sets, and portable receivers. Our results show that the proposed SDR architecture for DVB-T transmission is a low-cost low-complexity solution that, in the worst case, only requires less than 22% of CPU load and less than 170 MB of memory usage, on a 3.0 GHz Core i7 processor. In addition, using the same SDR modem board, we design an off-line software receiver that also performs time synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation and compensation

Radio frequency and channel investigation using software defined radio in MATLAB And simulink environment

This paper is a four section investigation of various communication principles to demonstrate the capabilities of using MATLAB and Software Defined Radio (RTL-SDR R820T) to receive, decode, analyse and resample a radio frequency signal. A novel MATLAB model system is developed to identify signals based on the signal characteristics in the spectrum analysers. The bandwidth, frequency, modulation and demodulation techniques of the signal were also identified. The section two is a design developed around multiplex and down-conversion to baseband In-phase/Quadrature phase (IQ) for multiple channel Frequency Modulated (FM) and Amplitude Modulated Double Sideband Transmitted Carrier (AM-DSB-TC) signal received. The functional description of sampling, decimation and interpolation form part of the contribution of this paper. The final section of the paper presents a short research on the potential benefits and a survey into the future of Software Defined Radio (SDR).Keywords: Modulation, Decimation, Demodulation, Interpolation, Frequency, MATLAB/Simulin

Contrôle d'application flot de données pour les systèmes sur puces : étude de cas sur la plateforme Magali

International audienceLes applications embarquées demandent toujours plus de puissance de calcul pour moins de consommation, avec comme conséquence l'apparition de systèmes sur puces dédiés. Dans le domaine du traitement du signal, le modèle de calcul flot de données est couramment utilisé pour la programmation de ces systèmes sur puce. Il est donc nécessaire d'avoir un modèle d'exécution adapté à ces architectures et répondant aux contraintes applicatives. Dans ce tra- vail, nous proposons un nouveau modèle d'exécution pour le contrôle d'applications flot de données. Notre approche s'appuie sur les liens entre les caractéristiques des applications et les performances selon le modèle d'exécution associé. Ce travail est illustré avec une étude de cas sur la plateforme Magali

SDN Controlled mmWave Massive MIMO Hybrid Precoding for 5G Heterogeneous Mobile Systems

In 5G mobile network, millimeter wave (mmWave) and heterogeneous networks (Hetnets) are significant techniques to sustain coverage and spectral efficiency. In this paper, we utilize the hybrid precoding to overcome hardware constraints on the analogonly beamforming in mmWave systems. Particularly, we identify the complicated antenna coordination and vast spatial domain information as the outstanding challenges in mmWave Hetnets. In our work, we employ software defined network (SDN) to accomplish radio resource management (RRM) and achieve flexible spacial coordination in mmWave Hetnets. In our proposed scheme, SDN controller is responsible for collecting the user channel state information (CSI) and applying hybrid precoding based on the calculated null-space of victim users. Simulation results show that our design can effectively reduce the interference to victim users and support high quality of service

Real-Time Generation of Standard-Compliant DVB-T Signals

This paper proposes and discusses two software implementations of the DVB-T modulator, using C++ and MATLAB, respectively. All the key features of the DVB-T standard are included. The C++ DVB-T modulator, incorporated into the Iris framework developed by Trinity College of Dublin, works in real time on an Intel Core i7 2.4 GHz CPU with the Iris testbed. The MATLAB-based DVB-T modulator is coupled with a receiver implementation with channel estimation, equalization, soft-output demapping and channel decoding. The validation step demonstrates that the proposed DVB-T software implementations generate standard-compliant DVB-T signals that are correctly received by commercially available TV sets and USB dongles. The software code for the Iris-based C++ modulator, and for the MATLAB-based modulator and receiver, has been made publicly available under the GNU license

Дослідження структури організації програмного забезпечення SDR систем на базі SoC

Мета - спрощення вибору рішення для SDR систем на базі SoC у SDR системах у контексті ефективності обраного рішення та часу розробки програмного забезпечення для таких систем. Практичні задачі, на вирішення яких спрямовано проект: - детальний аналіз ефективності роботи RTOS (Real Time Operating Systems), Bare metal та юнікс-подібних операційних систем у SDR + SoC; - оцінка орієнтовного часу розробки програмного забезпечення для існуючих рішень SDR систем на базі SoC; - Практичне дослідження обраної структури організації програмного забезпечення SDR систем на базі SoC. Значимість проекту для розв’язання економічних і соціальних проблем: підвищення ефективності розробки та використання програмного забезпечення для SDR систем на базі SoC. Об’єктом дослідження є програмно-визначувані радіосистеми (SDR) на базі системи на кристалі (SoC). Предметом дослідження є ефективність RTOS (Real Time Operating Systems), Bare metal та юнікс-подібних операційних систем для програмно-визначуваних радіосистем (SDR) на базі системи на кристалі (SoC). Проблема, що вирішується - вибір програмного забезпечення (операційної системи або відсутність операційної системи) для забезпечення оптимальної роботи SDR систем на базі SoC.The aim of this work is to simplify the choice of solution for SoC-based SDR systems in SDR systems in the context of the efficiency of the chosen solution and the software development time for such systems. Practical tasks to be solved by the project: - detailed analysis of the efficiency of RTOS (Real Time Operating Systems), Bare metal and Unix-like operating systems in SDR + SoC; - estimation of time spent for software development for existing SoC-based SDR solutions; - study of the selected structure of the organization of software SDR systems based on SoC. Significance of the project for solving economic and social problems: increase the efficiency of development and use of software for SDR systems based on SoC. The object of the study is SDR systems based on a SoC. The subject of the study is the efficiency of RTOS, Bare metal and Unix-like operating systems for SoC based SDR. The problem to be solved is the choice of software (OS or no OS) to ensure optimal operation of SDR systems based on SoC

Near Deterministic Signal Processing Using GPU, DPDK, and MKL

RÉSUMÉ En radio défnie par logiciel, le traitement numcrique du signal impose le traitement en temps réel des donnés et des signaux. En outre, dans le développement de systèmes de communication sans fil basées sur la norme dite Long Term Evolution (LTE), le temps réel et une faible latence des processus de calcul sont essentiels pour obtenir une bonne experience utilisateur. De plus, la latence des calculs est une clé essentielle dans le traitement LTE, nous voulons explorer si des unités de traitement graphique (GPU) peuvent être utilisées pour accélérer le traitement LTE. Dans ce but, nous explorons la technologie GPU de NVIDIA en utilisant le modéle de programmation Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) pour réduire le temps de calcul associé au traitement LTE. Nous présentons briévement l'architecture CUDA et le traitement paralléle avec GPU sous Matlab, puis nous comparons les temps de calculs avec Matlab et CUDA. Nous concluons que CUDA et Matlab accélérent le temps de calcul des fonctions qui sont basées sur des algorithmes de traitement en paralléle et qui ont le même type de données, mais que cette accélération est fortement variable en fonction de l'algorithme implanté. Intel a proposé une boite à outil pour le développement de plan de données (DPDK) pour faciliter le développement des logiciels de haute performance pour le traitement des fonctionnalités de télécommunication. Dans ce projet, nous explorons son utilisation ainsi que celle de l'isolation du système d'exploitation pour réduire la variabilité des temps de calcul des processus de LTE. Plus précisément, nous utilisons DPDK avec la Math Kernel Library (MKL) pour calculer la transformée de Fourier rapide (FFT) associée avec le processus LTE et nous mesurons leur temps de calcul. Nous évaluons quatre cas: 1) code FFT dans le cœur esclave sans isolation du CPU, 2) code FFT dans le cœur esclave avec l'isolation du CPU, 3) code FFT utilisant MKL sans DPDK et 4) code FFT de base. Nous combinons DPDK et MKL pour les cas 1 et 2 et évaluons quel cas est plus déterministe et réduit le plus la latence des processus LTE. Nous montrons que le temps de calcul moyen pour la FFT de base est environ 100 fois plus grand alors que l'écart-type est environ 20 fois plus élevé. On constate que MKL offre d'excellentes performances, mais comme il n'est pas extensible par lui-même dans le domaine infonuagique, le combiner avec DPDK est une alternative très prometteuse. DPDK permet d'améliorer la performance, la gestion de la mémoire et rend MKL évolutif.----------ABSTRACT In software defined radio, digital signal processing requires strict real time processing of data and signals. Specifically, in the development of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, real time and low latency of computation processes are essential to obtain good user experience. As low latency computation is critical in real time processing of LTE, we explore the possibility of using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to accelerate its functions. As the first contribution of this thesis, we adopt NVIDIA GPU technology using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) programming model in order to reduce the computation times of LTE. Furthermore, we investigate the efficiency of using MATLAB for parallel computing on GPUs. This allows us to evaluate MATLAB and CUDA programming paradigms and provide a comprehensive comparison between them for parallel computing of LTE processes on GPUs. We conclude that CUDA and Matlab accelerate processing of structured basic algorithms but that acceleration is variable and depends which algorithm is involved. Intel has proposed its Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) as a tool to develop high performance software for processing of telecommunication data. As the second contribution of this thesis, we explore the possibility of using DPDK and isolation of operating system to reduce the variability of the computation times of LTE processes. Specifically, we use DPDK along with the Math Kernel Library (MKL) provided by Intel to calculate Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) associated with LTE processes and measure their computation times. We study the computation times in different scenarios where FFT calculation is done with and without the isolation of processing units along the use of DPDK. Our experimental analysis shows that when DPDK and MKL are simultaneously used and the processing units are isolated, the resulting processing times of FFT calculation are reduced and have a near-deterministic characteristic. Explicitly, using DPDK and MKL along with the isolation of processing units reduces the mean and standard deviation of processing times for FFT calculation by 100 times and 20 times, respectively. Moreover, we conclude that although MKL reduces the computation time of FFTs, it does not offer a scalable solution but combining it with DPDK is a promising avenue