Project Proposal for Software Defined Radio

Advisors: Dr. Stewart & Dr. Ahn

Luke Vercimak
Karl Weyeneth

12/07/2005
Bradley University ECE Department
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Table of Contents
Table of Contents................................................................................................................................. 2
Table of Images ................................................................................................................................... 3
Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Functional Description..................................................................................................................... 4
System Block Diagram .................................................................................................................... 5
Transmitter ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Receiver........................................................................................................................................... 6
Preliminary Work and Results ............................................................................................................. 7
Standards and Patents Research ....................................................................................................... 7
Datasheet ......................................................................................................................................... 8
TI 6713DSK Board and Simulink .................................................................................................... 8
QAM ............................................................................................................................................... 8
OFDM ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Schedule ............................................................................................................................................ 17
Equipment List .................................................................................................................................. 18
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................... 18
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Table of Images
Figure 1 - I/O block diagram for transmitter and receiver radio systems............................................... 4
Figure 2 - System Breakdown of the Software Radio ........................................................................... 5
Figure 3 – Transmitter Subsystem Detailed Diagram ........................................................................... 5
Figure 4 - Detail of Channel................................................................................................................. 6
Figure 5 - Receiver Subsystem Detail .................................................................................................. 6
Figure 6: 4 Level QAM Constellation ................................................................................................. 9
Figure 7 - QAM Transmitter & Receiver ........................................................................................... 10
Figure 8 - FFT of QAM transmission signal....................................................................................... 10
Figure 9 - A. In-phase signal transmitted, B. In-phase output, C. Quadrature signal transmitted, D.
Quadrature output ...................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 10 - Overall diagram for OFDM modulator............................................................................. 12
Figure 11 - Block Diagram for the OFDM modulator ........................................................................ 12
Figure 12 - Block Diagram showing the OFDM demodulator ............................................................ 13
Figure 13 - Resulting signal spectrum when using constant data ........................................................ 14
Figure 14 - Power spectrum of OFDM signal using random data ....................................................... 15
Figure 15 - The 4 input channels to the OFDM tranmitter .................................................................. 16
Figure 16 - The 4 output channels from the OFDM receiver .............................................................. 16
Figure 17 – Project flow and milestones for completion..................................................................... 17
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Summary
A software defined radio is a radio transmitter/receiver that uses digital signal processing (DSP) for
coding/decoding and modulation/demodulation. Using digital signal processing for the radio allows for
greater flexibility and accuracy when designing radios. This project will focus on the design and
implementation of a digital software radio. The project will be a scaled down version of the 802.11a
standard and will use QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and will be multiplexed with OFDM
(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). The project will also focus on rapid development and
prototyping by using Simulink block diagrams to program the Texas Instruments TMDSK6713
evaluation board.

Functional Description
A software defined radio is a radio transmitter/receiver that uses digital signal processing (DSP) for
coding/decoding and modulation/demodulation. This allows much more power and flexibility when
choosing and designing modulation and coding techniques. The C6700 series of digital signal
processors have been chosen for this project. More specifically the TMDSK6713 evaluation board with
the TMS320C6713 DSP chip will be used.

Due to hardware availability, both the transmitter and receiver will be implemented on the same DSP
evaluation board. The system will be constructed and programmed entirely in Simulink using the
embedded target for TI C6000 Simulink library. Simulink will generate the code based off of the
model designed and will then download it to the board through TI Code Composer Studio for testing.
Channel
Noise

Figure 1 - I/O block diagram for transmitter and receiver radio systems

Inputs and Outputs

An overall block diagram for the software radio project is found in figure 1. The inputs to the
system are a digital data source (computer file) and channel noise. The output of the system is
the recovered input data. The recovered data should be received exactly as transmitted. This
can be displayed on an oscilloscope coming out of the DSP evaluation board and/or stored on a
computer file for further verification and analysis.
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Vercimak, Weyeneth
Modes of Operation
The input from the digital data source will be sent into the transmitter. There it will have
channel coding applied to provide protection from data corruption introduced by noise. This
part will not be implemented in this project. After that, the encoded digital signal will then be
modulated with an appropriate modulation technique and transmitted through the channel. An
appropriate model and representation for the channel also needs determined. After this, the
receiver demodulates the signal and applies appropriate channel decoding. From there the
reconstructed digital signal will be available for further analysis.

System Block Diagram

Figure 2 - System Breakdown of the Software Radio

The input to the system will be digital data in a computer file. This data will be modulated by the
transmitter and sent to the channel. The channel will cause interference to the signal in the form of
attenuation, phase delay, and noise. At the receiver side, the signal will be demodulated and
reconstructed to produce the original transmitted message.

Transmitter
The transmitter shown in Figure 2 will generate the signal that will be transmitted through the
channel. Demultiplexing, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM), and up mixing will work together to create the transmitter
signal output.

Figure 3 – Transmitter Subsystem Detailed Diagram

Demultiplexing & Modulation

The demultiplexing block will take 8 bits of binary data and then break the 8-bit stream into
four 2-bit streams. These 2-bit streams will each be fed into a QAM modulation channel.
Once the QAM channels have modulated the input data, they will be passed into the OFDM
block. The OFDM system will multiplex the QAM signals together to produce the final
modulated output.

Up Mixer
Mixing is done to meet the bandwidth requirements of the channel. The up mixer will increase
the frequency of the OFDM signal by multiplying it by a greater carrier frequency. The OFDM
signal will be imbedded in the carrier signal that the local oscillator produces. The output of
the mixer will be in bandwidth of the channel.
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Vercimak, Weyeneth
Channel
Figure 3 shows the detail of the channel block from figure 1. The channel block will implement
a model of an actual transmission channel. Different parts of the channel will model different
channel effects on the output of the transmitter. These are channel gain, multi-path interference,
and noise.

Figure 4 - Detail of Channel

Channel Attenuation
The channel attenuation will model the attenuation or possibly the gain effect that the channel
will have on the transmitted signal. It this gain can vary with frequency and/or time.

Multi-path interference
The multi-path interference will model reflections of the transmitted signal. These reflections
will arrive at the receiver at different times. Each one of these paths can have its own
attenuation that can vary with time and frequency.

Noise
Noise will also be introduced into the signal. This noise is either specific to a limited frequency
range (narrow band noise) or affects the whole spectrum of the transmitted signal.

Receiver

Figure 5 - Receiver Subsystem Detail

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Vercimak, Weyeneth
The receiver subsystem shown in figure 4 will recover the sent message. To do this it needs to
extract the carrier, symbol, and frame timing from the signal. It then will use this information to
extract the message from the phase, frequency, and amplitude noise of the channel. The
receiver has the following main parts: carrier synchronization, automatic gain control,
demodulation, symbol synchronization, and frame synchronization.

Carrier synchronization
The carrier synchronization subsystem will correct for frequency differences between the
transmitter and the receiver. It will also correct for the phase delay introduced by the channel. It
will do this using a phased locked loop (PLL) technique.

Automatic Gain Control (possibly not implemented)

The automatic gain control system will correct for the time varying differences in channel
attenuation. It will do this by adjusting the average power of the input signal to a known value.

Demodulation
The demodulation system consists of two parts: OFDM demodulation and QAM demodulation.
The OFDM demodulation will demodulate the signal into its constituent QAM sub signals. The
QAM demodulation will demodulate the QAM carriers back into the pulses that were used to
modulate it.

Symbol Synchronization
The symbol synchronization will figure out the most appropriate time to sample the pulses
coming from the QAM modulation. This will allow the most accurate information to be
extracted from the pulse stream. The output of this block will then be fed into a multiplexer.
The output of the multiplexer will be the digital data that was fed into the system to begin with.

Frame Synchronization
The frame synchronization will synchronize the data frames of the system. This will align the
start time of the message so that the digital data can be interpreted correctly. This will allow the
compute file or message to be translated back into its original form.

Preliminary Work and Results

Preliminary work on the software radio project has begun over the course of the fall semester. This has
consisted of standards and patent research, getting familiar with the TI board and its Simulink
interface, QAM transceiver design, and OFDM transceiver design.

Standards and Patents Research

Standards and patent research was completed to gather information and ideas that would help in the
design and implementation of the project.

Standards
The primary standard that this project is based on is IEEE 802.11a. IEEE 802.11a is a standard
for wireless networking. In the standard there are details for the implementation and operation
of a digital radio for use as a network interface. Our project is an adapted version of this
standard, scaled to the scope of the project and the time available for the project.
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Vercimak, Weyeneth
Patents
The following patents and patent applications were discovered when researching patents and
patent applications applicable to this project.
Patent Description
Number
6,091,765 Reconfigurable radio system architecture
6,353,640 Reconfigurable radio frequency communication system
6,937,877 Wireless communication with a mobile asset employing dynamic
configuration of a software defined radio
6,954,628 Radio receiver
Patent
Application
2005243952 Methods for processing a received signal in a software defined radio
(SDR) system, a transceiver for an SDR system and a receiver for an
SDR system
20050190827 Modulation/demodulation apparatus for the encoding and decoding of
data and method for encoding and decoding data
Table 1 - Applicable patents and patent applications

Datasheet
Limits
Parameter Symbol Min Typical Max Units
Modulation
Frequency Fmod 10K Hz Hz
bits /
Data Rate R 1K Hz sec
Sampling Rate Fsamp 100K Hz Hz
Table 2 - Specifications for Software Radio
Table 2 shows the specifications decided upon for the software radio. The sampling rate of
100KHz is consistent with the sampling frequency of the A/D converter shown in table 3.

TI 6713DSK Board and Simulink

The first half of lab time this semester was used to become familiar with using Simulink to program
the TI 6713DSK board. When everything is setup properly with the correct versions of the software,
the programming of the board works seamlessly. Code Composer Studio, the programming software
that comes with the DSK board, must be running before compilation of the program is to take place.
After the target dialog is properly configured (noted in notebook), all one must do is press the compile
button. After some time of code generation and compilation, the program is running on the DSK board.

QAM
Quadrature amplitude modulation is a modulation scheme that creates a modulation signal from a
binary bit stream. The binary data is broken up, and then composed into two signals which are called
quadrature and in-phase signals. The in-phase signal represents the first half of the binary segment,
and the quadrature signal represents the other half. The two signals are then mixed with a local
oscillator carrier frequency and then summed together. The output from the summer is the QAM
output which can be written as:
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth
s(t) = x(t)cos(wct) – y(t)sin(wct)
Equation 1 - Equation defining a QAM signal

x(t) is the in-phase component and y(t) is the quadrature component. This can be rewritten in complex
envelope form as:

g(t) = x(t) +jy(t)

Equation 2 - Complex envelope of QAM signal

A QAM constellation can be designed to identify what symbols represent certain binary values. A
simple constellation is shown in Figure 6.

Imaginary Axis
(Quadrature)
y

S2 S1

Real Axis
(In-phase)

S3 S4

Figure 6: 4 Level QAM Constellation

 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Preliminary Design

Repeat
Input Output
200x
Repeat1
Polarization_In-Phase
s(t)
In-Phase
Inphase
coswct coswct inp inpf
coswct
In-Phase cos wct
QAM output
Bernoulli Data_In
sinwct
sinwct
-sinwct
-s inwct
d(t) quad quadf Scope3
Binary Quad Quadrature Quad
R/2 bits/sec
Local Oscillator Mixing/Addition Local Oscillator_R s(t)1
Bernoulli Binary
Serial2Parallel Filtering
Generator Mixing

Repeat
Input Output
200x B-FFT
Repeat Spectrum
Polarization_Quad Scope

Figure 7 - QAM Transmitter & Receiver

Figure 7 shows the overall block diagram for the QAM transmitter and receiver. It was made and
simulated in Simulink.

Results
Currently the local oscillators are operating at 1KHz which can be seen in Figure 8 and the with
a bandwidth of 200Hz. The bit rate is set currently at 1/100 sec.

Figure 8 - FFT of QAM transmission signal

 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth
The results from the QAM transmitter and receiver match up very well as shown in Figure 9. A digital
synthesizer still needs to be implemented on the receiver side. Expansion upon the basic 4-level QAM
scheme will also be looked into.

Figure 9 - A. In-phase signal transmitted, B. In-phase output, C.

Quadrature signal transmitted, D. Quadrature output

OFDM
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing or OFDM is a way to transmit many modulated signals
at once by multiplexing them over a large number of frequencies. OFDM is different from normal
frequency multiplexing because the individual frequency carriers are orthogonal to each other. This
allows them to be closely space and not interfere with each other. Leon Couch in his book Digital and
Analog Communication Systems gives the complex envelop for OFDM in equation 1.
1 N −1 
fn =  n −  Orthogonal Carrier Frequency
T 2 
ϕ n (t ) = e j 2πf t - Orthogonal Carrier Function
n

N −1
g (t ) = Ac ∑ wnϕ n (t ) where 0 > t > T , w n is
n= 0

the nth element of the data vector [w0 , w1 ,...wN −1 ]

Equation 3 - OFDM Complex Envelope definition

T is the duration of data symbol on each carrier. According to equation 1, this will create subcarriers
1/T Hz apart. If the part in the parenthesis of the equation for fn is ignored, and the equations are
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth
combined the result is the definition for the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform or IFFT. The ignored part
is just a frequency shift and the results of this can be accomplished by properly placing the data in the
FFT input vector.

Preliminary Design

1
w0
Constant x (t ) x (t) x ^(t) x ^(t)
x (t ) x^(t) w1
D ata m (t) w s(t) s (t ) s ^(t) s ^(t )
s(t) s^(t) w2
y (t ) y (t ) y ^(t) y ^(t)
y (t ) y ^(t) w3
M anual Switch BPSK M od Serial to DeOFDM -4 Output from OFDM
Bernoul li OFDM -4 Quadrature M odulator Channel Quadrature Dem odulator
m (t) Parallel Buffer
Binary
Bernoul li Binary
Generator Select
Rows
Input to OFDM
M ul tiport
Sel ector

Figure 10 - Overall diagram for OFDM modulator

Figure 10 shows the overall structure for the OFDM modulator. Either a random data source or
a constant data source was used as test data. To test the OFDM itself, each carrier had to be
modulated also. A simple BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) arrangement was used to test the
OFDM modulator. The “BPSK Mod” in figure 10 generates the complex envelope for the
BPSK signal from the data source.

Re(u) 1
1 IFFT
Im (u) x(t)
w
IFFT Com pl ex to 2
Zero Pad
Unbuffer Real -Im ag
y(t)

M atri x
Vi ewer IFFT _OUT

T o Workspace
M atri x
Vi ewer

Figure 11 - Block Diagram for the OFDM modulator

Figure 11 shows the block diagram for the transmitter. In figure 10 the input signal was
buffered to make the input to the OFDM modulation block four parallel symbols per symbol
period of 10mS. Then in the OFDM modulation block the input was zero padded so that the
signal will be at the sampling rate of 800 Hz when unbuffered later. After being zero padded,
the signal was sent through the IFFT to create the complex envelope for the OFDM signal.
After unbuffering, the signal was separated into inphase and quadrature parts and sent out of
the block. The two signals were then sent to a standard quadrature transmitter. This resulting
signal was sent through a channel bock (that does nothing) and then sent into the demodulating
block which mixes with another 200Hz sinusoidal and separates the signal into inphase and
quadrature parts. The resulting inphase and quadrature parts were then sent into the OFDM
demodulating block shown in figure 12.
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

1 w0
2
x^(t) Re Sel ect w1
In Out
Im Rows
Real -Im ag to 3
2
Com pl ex Buffer M ul ti port
FFT w2
y^(t) Sel ector
4
w3
M atri x
FFT _IN Viewer

T o Workspace M atri x
Viewer

Figure 12 - Block Diagram showing the OFDM demodulator

The demodulation block first combines the inphase and quadrature parts into a complex signal.
The signal is then run through a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to recover the data.
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Results

Figure 13 - Resulting signal spectrum when using constant data

Figure 13 shows the resulting signal spectrum from the OFDM transmitter when using constant
input data. The result was four carriers spaced by 25 Hz, ending at 200 Hz. The 200 Hz ending
frequency is from the modulation frequency of 200 Hz. The reason that the spikes descend in
frequency when the data was put in the IFFT in increasing frequency is unknown and needs to
be investigated. The frequency spacing is consistent with the symbol rate at the input of the
IFFT. The data rate of 100 symbols/second was buffered by 4 which makes it 25 symbols per
second. The carrier spacing in OFDM is and should be the symbol rate.
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Figure 14 - Power spectrum of OFDM signal using random data

Figure 14 shows the power spectrum of the OFDM signal using random data. This matches
closely with the picture found on page 369 of Digital and Analog Communication Systems [1].
Figures 15 and 16 show the parallel input data and parallel output data to the OFDM modulator
and demodulator. Although delayed, the amplitude, spacing, shape, and content of the input and
output is the same. This signifies a successful demodulation.
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Figure 15 - The 4 input channels to the OFDM Figure 16 - The 4 output channels from the OFDM
tranmitter receiver
 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth

Schedule
Preliminary Work (1/19/2006) (1/26/2006) - (2/2/2006) (2/9/2006) - (2/16/2006) (2/23/2006) - (3/2/2006)

Develop and
simulate Carrier Develop/Simulate Develop/Simulate
Development/ Synchronization Message Message
Simulation of for BPSK Encoder/Decoder Synchronization
Test QAM transceiver (PLL)
QAM transmitter
Transceiver on
and receiver with
Board
perfect
synchronization

Integrate
Get simulink message
Integrate QAM
connection Integrate Carrier Encoder/Decoder
Transceiver and Integrate symbol
working with Test on board Synchronization Test on board Test on board and
OFDM synchronization
6713 board. and Tranceiver synchronization
transceiver
Learn how works. into software
radio

Development/
Simulation of
Test OFDM
OFDM transmitter
Transceiver on
and receiver with
Board
perfect Develop and
synchronization. Simulate symbol
synchronization

Develop A/D Color Key

driver for 6713
Board

Both partners work on task

Luke mainly works on task

Karl mainly works on task

Develop D/A
Develop/Simulate
driver for 6713
Channel Model
Board

Test Message Test performance

Transceiver
Encoder and of software radio
Integrate Channel working at Oral Presentation Final Project
Frame Test on board under different Test on board
Model 100KHz on board Preparation Report
Synchronization channel
over A/D and D/A
on board conditions

(3/9/3006) (3/16/2006) - (3/23/2006) (3/30/2006) – (4/6/2006) (4/6/2006-5/4/2006)

Figure 17 – Project flow and milestones for completion

 Software Radio
Vercimak, Weyeneth
Figure 17 details the project flow and milestones for completion. The preliminary work
has been completed as of writing this document. A date and/or date range is shown above
each block. The estimated completion for each

Equipment List
The equipment in table 1 will be needed to complete this project. The equipment has
already been ordered and received by the time of writing.

Code Model Description Price ($)

5-6KINTERFACE DAP9527U 5-6K Interface Board 49
TMDSDSK6713 TMDSDSK6713 DSP Starter Kit 395
(DSP9959U)
TLC4541EVM TLC4541 16-bit 200KSPS ADC Serial Out 49
(DAP9548U)
DAC8811EVM DAC8811 16-bit serial input, multiplying D/A 49
(DAP12113U) converter with single supply 2.7-
5.5V. 0.5uS settling time
Table 3 - Equipment List

Bibliography
[1] Couch, Leon W. Digital and Analog Communication Systems. 1997. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2002.
[3] IEEE Std. 802.11a. “Part 11: Wireless LAN Media Access Control and Physical
Layer Specifications.” IEEE SA-Standards Board. June 12, 2003.
[2] Johnson, C. Richard, Jr., Sethares, William A. Telecommunication Breakdown. 2004.
New Jersey:Prentice Hall, 2004.