Modeling Heterogeneous Systems Using SystemC-AMS Case Study: A Wireless Sensor Network Node

Abstract — The paper presents a preliminary approach for the modeling and simulation of a simple but complete Wireless Sensor Network with two nodes using SystemC-AMS, an open-source C++ library dedicated to the description of heterogeneous systems containing digital, analog, RF hardware parts as well as embedded software. The WSN node, or mote, detailed herein consists of a physical sensor, a continuous time sigmadelta converter with its associated decimation filter, an ATMEGA128 8-bit microcontroller running the embedded application and a QPSK-based 2.4 GHz RF transceiver. The node has been designed to be interoperable with both the XBow MICAZ hardware platform and the TinyOS operating system in a near future. The paper starts with the structural description of the system as a hierarchical set of behavioural modules, then gives an insight on how multi-frequency simulation is handled in SystemC-AMS, and finally presents simulation results that are systematically compared with the Matlab reference in terms of accuracy and simulation time. I

Modeling and Refining Heterogeneous Systems With SystemC-AMS: Application to WSN

Abstract — The paper presents a system-level approach for the modeling and simulation of a paradigmatic Wireless Sensor Network composed of two nodes using SystemC-AMS, an open-source C++ extension to the OSCI SystemC Standard dedicated to the description of heterogeneous systems containing digital, analog, RF hardware IPs as well as embedded software. The paper is composed of three parts. The first part details the modeled WSN (physical sensor, sigma-delta ADC, ATMEGA128 8-bit microcontroller running the embedded application, QPSK-based 2.4 GHz RF transceiver), presents the corresponding implementation in SystemC-AMS, and gives an insight on how multi-frequency simulation is handled in SystemC-AMS. The second part shows how to introduce several RF designer specifications (noise figure, IIP3,...) into models and how to express them in SystemC-AMS. The third part proves that the combination of C++ and RF baseband equivalent dramatically reduces simulation time while keeping excellent accuracy and code readability. The paper concludes on the possibilities offered by this approach in terms of validation and optimization of heteregeneous systems through open-source simulation. I

Multi-Level Modeling of Wireless Embedded Systems

The design of wireless embedded systems needs their efficient and realistic simulation to verify that requirements are met. The reproduction of communication behavior is crucial to assess the performance of hardware and software components, e.g., dependability and energy consumption. This work presents and discusses different levels of abstraction for the simulation of the communication behavior. Each level addresses different aspects of the communication and allows to specify different kinds of detail; furthermore, it requires a specific modeling approach. Their use and the corresponding computational overhead is shown in the specific case of the Bluetooth standard. We also show that simulation results obtained at a low abstraction level can be used at a higher one to drive design choices

Virtual Prototyping of Open Source Heterogeneous Systems with an Open Source Framework Featuring SystemC MDVP Extensions

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