< title> Software Defined Radio Hands-On: FPGA Prototyping with Over-the-Air Signals - National Instruments

Software Defined Radio Hands-On: FPGA Prototyping with Over-the-Air Signals

 

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

 

Georgia Institute of Technology

CSIP Library, Room number 5126

75 Fifth Street NW

Atlanta, GA

 
In today’s competitive wireless research space, the ability to quickly prototype ideas on hardware using real signals is more important than ever. In this half day tutorial, you will gain hands-on experience with National Instruments’ integrated hardware and software platform for rapid prototyping of real-time wireless systems using the NI LabVIEW Communications System Design Suite (LabVIEW Communications) and the NI USRP-RIO FPGA-based software defined radio. At the end of the tutorial, you will be able to design, simulate, and prototype a 5 MHz LTE-based real-time OFDM link on a high performance FPGA, and transmit data over the air using the link you design on the NI USRP-RIO. The tutorial will cover the most important aspects of the idea-to-prototype flow in a single tool, including floating-point simulation, floating-point to fixed-point conversion, HW/SW partitioning, performance-complexity tradeoffs, and finally verification and testing on an FPGA-based software-defined radio. Note: No prior experience with FPGA’s or NI hardware or software tools is required but you should have working knowledge on digital and wireless communications topics such as OFDM.
 
Tutorial Outline:
  • Overview of NI LabVIEW Communications System Design Suite & NI USRP RIO
  • System Architecture Definition
    • System Designer Tool
    • Reference Designs and Sample Projects
  • Initial Floating Point Algorithm Development
    • MathScript and C Nodes
    • Multi-Rate Diagram
    • Unit Testing
  • Preparing a Design for Deployment to FPGA
    • Fixed Point Conversion
    • System Testbenches
    • FPGA Simulation
    • FPGA Compile
  • Connecting and Exercising your Design Over The Air
    • Integrating the design into an existing Sample Project
    • Data communication to/from the FPGA