ATIME 2013/02. Software Defined Electronics: A Revolutionary Paradigm for RF Radio and Measurement Systems - 09/05/2013

SOFTWARE DEFINED ELECTRONICS:
A REVOLUTIONARY PARADIGM FOR RF RADIO AND MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

Géza Kolumbán, Fellow IEEE, IEEE CAS Distinguished Lecturer

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In Software Defined Electronics (SDE), RF/microwave analog signal processing is substituted by its digital counterpart operating in the BaseBand (BB). Every application is implemented in SW and the transformation between the BB data streams and real RF analog signals is performed by a universal HW device. The SW implementation offers reconfigurability, high accuracy and flexibility required in cognitive radio, reconfigurable automated test beds, etc. The most important feature of the SDE approach is that the HW and SW components are completely separated, and the same universal HW can be used to implement different communication standards.

Although digital signal processing has been used extensively in low-frequency applications for many years, until this time it could not satisfy the strict requirements of RF, microwave and optical applications where the (i) ultra-wide dynamic range and (ii) high sampling rate are a must. Recently, the situation has been changing rapidly. For example, Software Defined Radio (SDR), Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) and Virtual Instrumentation (VI) all mean that a universal HW device should be used to extract the complex envelope of an RF/microwave bandpass signal to be demodulated or analyzed, and the radio receiver or signal analyzer is implemented in baseband, entirely in SW. The complex envelope features two essential properties: (i) it carries all the information available in the original RF bandpass signal and (ii) it assures the theoretically attainable minimum sampling rate. This has profound implications for both integrated circuit implementations of both RF t! ransceivers and measurement equipment.

The route from research to product can be very time-consuming. The universal PXI-based software-defined wireless platform discussed in this course lecture reduces this transition time considerably because the NI LabVIEW platform used (i) integrates the MATLAB subroutines developed in the research phase, (ii) provides access to the PXI-based universal HW devices and (iii) provides access to measurement instruments equipped with the VISA-type remote control capability.

The course will (i) introduce the theory of complex envelopes, (ii) describe USRP-type and NI PXI-based universal HW devices, and (iii) show how the baseband equivalents of RF/microwave systems can be derived. The lecture will show how a MATLAB simulator can be integrated with the SDE approach in order to get a real working 2.4-GHz telecommunications system and to perform all RF field tests in real propagation environments. The lecture is complemented by lab experiments demonstrating how different radio links standards can be implemented on a common USRP-based hardware platform under software control.

COURSE CONTENTS

The course is divided in two sessions (morning and afternoon) each of which contains two ninety-minute blocks. The morning session introduces theoretical background material. Block one in the morning session is devoted to the theory and applications of the concept of complex envelope. All theoretical results that are required to implement a desired application in the baseband are discussed and explained in block one. Based on these theoretical results, block two introduces the concept of equivalent BB representation and signal processing. Block two shows how BB equivalents of different radio transceivers, AWGN and noisy multipath channels and complete radio links can be derived.

Practical applications are discussed in the afternoon. There are two universal HW devices available on the market that can be used to implement different applications using the SDE concept. These HW devices, referred to as (i) USRP device and (ii) PXI-based universal SD wireless platform are introduced in block three in the afternoon session. Block three shows how a LabVIEW platform can integrate a MATLAB simulator developed in the research phase in order to implement a real 2.4-GHz FM-DCSK radio transceiver.

The evaluation of system performance of a new telecommunications system in various channels needs to perform many time consuming field tests. The time required for performance evaluation can be shortened considerably if a channel sounder is available. Unfortunately, channel sounders are very expensive devices. Block three will show how even the propagation conditions observed in an indoor radio channel can be emulated on the PXI platform and how the BER performance of an example 2.4-GHz FM-DCSK radio transceiver can be evaluated in an automated testbed.

Block four in the afternoon session is devoted to a laboratory demo. By means of two USRP devices and an evaluation board implementing an FSK SoC radio transceiver, different transmitter and receiver configurations are implemented. The demo block presents the implementation of a complete radio link where a simple distortion introduced by the RF channel is compensated in the BB using SW.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the course are (i) to give a comprehensive overview of the theory and applications of the concept of complex envelopes, (ii) to introduce the idea of the equivalent BB representation and to show the derivation of BB equivalents, (iii) to survey the HW and SW platforms that are currently used by the SDE concept and (iv) to demonstrate the power of the SDE concept via an implemented example and lab demos.

COURSE STRUCTURE

VENUE: TYNDALL NATIONAL INSTITUTE (HTTP://WWW.TYNDALL.IE)

09 MAY 2013, 09:00-12:30

BLOCK I (Morning Lecture) – THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF THE CONCEPT OF COMPLEX ENVELOPE
• Introduction and fundamentals
• Complex envelopes of deterministic signals, LTI systems and random processes
• Widespread applications of the concept of complex envelopes

BLOCK II (Morning Lecture) – EQUIVALENT BASEBAND REPRESENTATION
• BB representation of telecommunications and measurement systems
• Derivation of BB equivalents

09 MAY 2013, 14:00-17:30

BLOCK III (Afternoon Lecture) – UNIVERSAL HW DEVICES OF SDE CONCEPT
• The USRP and PXI-based devices
• Use of universal HW devices embedded into a computing system
• Implementation of a channel sounder
• Performance evaluation of a 2.4-GHz digital radio link on a PXI-based LabVIEW platform

BLOCK IV (Afternoon Lecture) – LABORATORY DEMO
• Implementation and testing of various radio systems on USRP-based LabVIEW platform

COURSE MATERIAL

A complete set of the course material will be given in advance to the audience, including the slides used during the lectures and a short description of the lab demos. See: Kolumban, G. Krebesz, T.I.; Lau, F.C.M. “Theory and Application of Software Defined Electronics: Design Concepts for the Next Generation of Telecommunications and Measurement Systems,” Circuits and Systems Magazine, IEEE, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 8–34, 2nd Quarter 2012.

TARGET AUDIENCE AND PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE

The course targets a wide audience from senior researchers, system architects and measurement engineers who want to get a better insight into the concept of equivalent baseband representation and implementation to less experienced graduate students who have the necessary background in signal processing and who are looking for a comprehensive discussion of the operating principle and implementation of up-to-date telecommunications and measurement systems. Beyond a general background in mathematics and theory of signals and systems, no special prerequisites are needed.

SHORT BIO OF INSTRUCTOR

Géza Kolumbán, received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from TU Budapest, his C.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and his Dr.habil degree from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He was made a Fellow of the IEEE Fellow in 2005 “for contributions to double-sampled phase-locked loops.” He is an IEEE CAS Distinguished Lecturer (2013-14).

After graduation, he spent 15 years in the professional telecommunications industry, where he developed microwave local oscillators, VCOs and power amplifiers for high-capacity microwave radio relay systems. Later he was involved in many system engineering projects such as SCPC-type satellite telecommunication systems, microwave satellite up- and down-converters, microwave digital radio systems, etc. He headed a group of engineers whose duty was to develop frequency synthesizers for frequency hopping spread spectrum and satellite telecommunications systems.

After joining the university, he showed that chaos exists in analog phase-locked loops, elaborated the theory of chaotic waveform communications and established noncoherent chaotic communications as a brand new research direction. He developed DCSK and FM-DCSK, the most popular chaotic modulation schemes.

Two of his papers co-authored with Profs. M.P. Kennedy and L.O. Chua have been ranked in top-cited IEEE Trans. CAS-I articles; these papers have been cited 377 and 272 times, respectively. He has been a visiting professor and researcher to UC Berkeley; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong; INSA-LATTIS Laboratory, Toulouse, France; University College Dublin and Cork; EPFL, Switzerland; TU Dresden, Germany. He has been providing consultancy service for National Instruments, Austin, USA; Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Suwon, Korea; SSL, Ireland, etc. Prof. Kolumban is the co-founder of Automated Testing for RF and Microwaves Ltd that, based on virtual instrumentation, develops automated test systems.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: Géza Kolumbán
Pázmány Péter Catholic University
Práter utca 50/a, Budapest, H-1083 – Budapest, HUNGARY

Phone/Cel.: +3618864754/+36705124490
Fax: +3618864724
E-mail:
Web page: users.itk.ppke.hu/~kolumban

Registration:
Full Day: includes AM and PM sessions, coffee breaks, lunch and course notes - €200
AM Only: includes AM session, coffee break and course notes - €150
PM Only: includes PM session, coffee break and course notes - €150
Full day (student rate) - includes AM and PM sessions, coffee breaks, lunch and course notes (current student card must be presented at registration) - €100