The overall solution is characterised by two elements: a digital one, oriented to elaborate and host the application, and an analog one able to operate in radiofrequency.
The digital part, based on SoC OMAP-L138, is low power and provides many high-speed interfaces. This part can control up to two digital analog and RF blocks. The aim is to support a multiple-input and multiple-output solution (MIMO). The block diagram of the solution is indicated in the figure below. Typically the layers of communication of the physical and link layer are implemented on the FPGA device while calibration and the highest layers of communication are implemented on ARM9 and DSP. Particularly interesting is the availability of a PCI express endpoint to obtain a high speed interface with other boards, the form factor of our platform, taking into account the PCIe mechanical spec.
The analog and RF solution integrates all blocks required for communication: DAC, ADC, amplifiers, filters, mixers and power amplifiers. Features of the analog and radio frequency solution:
- Tx/Rx from 300MHz to 3.8GHz;
- Conducted power: 20dBm for OFDM signal;
- Supported Bandwidth from 1.5 to 28MHz;
- Phase Noise with offset 10KHz @800MHz -94dBc/Hz
Applications
- Cognitive radio;
- Intelligent transport systems;
- Smart cities;
- High speed mobility;
- Telemetry;
- Telecommands;
- Mobility on critical environment;
- Satellite communication on mobility.
The SDR at a glance
| Item | Device Performance |
| DSP | 375MHz |
| ARM926 | 375MHz (375MIPS) |
| Xilinx SP6 LX45T/100T | More than 43K/101K logic cells |
| Memory DDR2 | 2 x 128MByte |
| Flash | 2 x 16MByte |
| Op. Temp. | -40 +85°C |
| Power consumption | 6W |
| Board Dimension | 105mm x 90mm |
| Supported Standard | IEEE 802.11 a/g/n/p/s/ac, LTE, WiMax |
| RTX carrier | from 232 to 3700MHz |
| Supported BW | up to 28MHz |