A Theoretical Evaluation of Commercially Available Tool Chain for Rapid Prototyping of Wireless Communication Systems

Using Moore’s Law, engineers and scientists have ability to place smart and powerful IC devices, with increasingly complex systems on a chip (SoC). This thesis describes the technology of rapid prototyping in the field of communication systems. Reconfigurable technologies always help in the construction of flexible systems (where hardware and software can be changed at any time during its execution). With growing developments in the field of communication systems, DSP is now the heart of every communication system; engineers are consequently looking for a smart and reliable platform to enhance their production to meet future challenges. This thesis presents a DSP-based theoretical survey of rapid prototyping in communication systems. An attempt has been made to cover every prototype issue in this theoretical survey. The objective is to make an evaluation to judge whether it is feasible for practical educational and research purposes. The test design proposed in this thesis for the evaluation is a simple DSP-based Correlator. Scientists and engineers are looking for a smart system which can provide end results, in order to be implemented in practical, real time environments and for research and educational purposes in universities. Previously we needed to make a hardware PCB for algorithm testing, especially when we had complex algorithms which involved a great deal of work, but with the help of this thesis and other research projects this area of rapid prototyping we are beginning to make some progress in the right direction. The tool chain plays a key role for the development in terms of the evaluation of rapid prototyping in communication systems. Currently the available methods to design a system require a great deal of time and money along with the efforts of many skilled researchers. Rapid prototyping is a shortcut with regards to these usual methods with appropriate tools to achieve the goal. In this thesis our main focus is on MATLAB, SIMULINK, REAL TIME WORKSHOP and the appropriate Texas Instruments products (Code Composer Studio and Target DSP), to achieve maximum performance and reduction of development time. The tools which are discussed are actively involved in the design process of systems using the rapid prototyping development technique. The basic system design is conducted using the model based on the design of tools in Math Works software, consisting of MATLAB and SIMULINK using their tool and block sets. Using these tools many applications for educational purposes and on a commercial level have been implemented [2]. Here a DSP application, an FFT-based (Fast Fourier Transform) Correlator is proposed that measures the phase delay of the two transmitted base band signals that are sampled at different rates. Four major phases are involved for the purposes of rapid prototyping : 1) - the system algorithm is designed and implemented in MATLAB and SIMULINK, 2) – generation of the standard ANSI C code for this designed model has been done by using REAL TIME WORK SHOP, 3)- implementation of this C code on DSP/Microprocessor-based hardware using an interface and 4)- carrying out a performance evaluation of this tool chain, i.e. whether it is feasible for practical, commercial and educational research purposes, and how these developments are overcoming the barriers for the implementation of DSP algorithms in communication systems for commercial and educational use. The tool chain acts as a bridge in between the input resources and output results after implementation on hardware. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 describes iv the main tools involved in the rapid prototyping revolution. Chapter 3 describes the role of every tool in the flow of rapid prototyping processes. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the previously implemented systems using rapid tool chains, their results and our proposed model and recommendations. Chapter 5 concludes the results grasped from the previously implemented tool chains and theoretical survey made in this thesis