Software defined radio-based general modulation/demodulation platform for enhancing undergraduate communication and networking curricula

We are living in a world of wireless communication and networking and the advances of communication and networking have changed the world fundamentally. Communication and networking courses, especially wireless communication and networking courses, have become an integral part of the Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering curricula. Due to costly hardware needed for communication and networking teaching laboratories, many of these courses are taught without a laboratory. Additionally, such hardware based teaching labs lack the flexibility to evolve over time and adapt to different environments. Supported by an NSF TUES type II grant, we have developed a software defined radio (SDR) based general modulation/demodulation platform for enhancing undergraduate communication and networking curricula. In our previous NSF funded CCLI project Evolvable wireless laboratory design and implementation for enhancing undergraduate wireless engineering education , we have developed and demonstrated the first nationwide example of evolvable SDR based laboratories for three existing undergraduate courses. In this project, we are developing new lab components that can be adopted by multiple courses ranging from freshman year introductory course to senior year capstone design projects. Specifically, we have developed a SDR based general modulation/demodulation platform with a graphical user interface (GUI). This user-friendly GUI will allow students to adjust RF parameters such as carrier frequency and symbol rate. More importantly, this general modulation/demodulation platform is capable of transmitting many popular modulation schemes such as BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK, 16PSK, 16QAM, 64QAM. Additionally, students are able to observe the transmitted signal in both time and frequency, and observe the constellation of the modulation at both the transmitter and the receiver. Furthermore, this platform enables students to design their own new modulation constellations via the GUI. At the receiver side, the SDR based platform also provides students the functionality of demodulating the data symbols and bits, and compare them with the transmitted data symbols and bits to calculate the symbol error rate (SER) and the bit error rate (BER) under different channel conditions and signal to noise ratios (SNRs). By assigning constellation points in the signal space and evaluating the SER/BER performance of the constellation, students gain hands-on experiences on the digital modulation/demodulation in realistic wireless communication channels. Through collaboration among the three participating institutions (Wright State University, Miami University (a mostly undergraduate serving institution), and Central State University (an HBCU)), the developed SDR based general modulation/demodulation platform will be integrated in undergraduate curricula of all three institutions