Broadband RF Front-end and Software Execution Procedure in Software-defined Radio

Hiroshi Yoshida, Hiroshi Tsurumi and Yasuo Suzuki

Mobile Communication Laboratory Toshiba Research and Development Center 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho Saiwai-ku Kawasaki-city 210-8582, Japan Abstract - A software-defined radio is one of the solutions for realizing a multi-mode terminal for various mobile communication standards. The software-defined radio can be changed by replacement of the application software, including modems, filters, equalizers and so on. A radio terminal architecture fit for the ideal softwaredefined radio implementation is described. A broadband RF-stage configuration, which introduces the direct conversion principle, is proposed for realizing the multi-mode softwaredefined radio. A software configuration including the application program which does not depend on the hardware, and the basic programs which reconcile the differences between hardware and execution procedure, are also proposed. run through different hardware.

Figure 1. Compatibility of Software and Hardware The multi-mode software-defined radio hardware should consist of a reconfigurable baseband digital signal processing stage and a broadband analog RF front-end. The software should contain basic programs to control each hardware, and application programs which do not depend on the hardware [3]. This paper first describes an architecture fit for the ideal software-defined radio implementation, and then wideband RF-stage configuration introducing the direct conversion principle is proposed. Next, the application software execution procedure, which uses basic software to reconcile the differences between hardware, is proposed for the architecture.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Various mobile communication standards are expected to continue to exist in the future, and so it is important to develop a mobile terminal that can be used as a multi-mode transceiver. Such a terminal would not only enable regional and global roaming, but also reduce the costs of introducing new technology superimposed on antiquated legacy technology. A software-defined radio [1][2] is one of the solutions for realizing a multi-mode terminal for various mobile communication standards. The software-defined radio has the flexibility to be a multi-standard connection with replacement of software, such as modem, equalizer, channel codec, synchronization. The software-defined radio is required to be compatible with various hardware and software (Figure 1). Any hardware designed for the software-defined radio (i.e. A, B and C) should execute the application software designed for different standards such as GSM, IS-95, IMT-2000. On the other hand, any software designed for the software-defined radio (i.e. a, p and y) should be

2. CONCEPTUAL SCHEME OF THE SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO TERMINAL

Figure 2 shows an architecture of the software-defined radio including the hardware and the software described below in detail.

2.1. Hardware
The hardware is divided into two stages, namely an analog- and a digital-stage.

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Analog-stage : The broadband analog-stage contains amplifiers, mixers, synthesizers, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). A general-purpose common analog-stage is needed for standards with different RF specifications such as carrier frequency, bandwidth, modulation scheme, and transmission power. Digital-stage : The digital-stage contains F'PGAs, DSPs, CPU, ASICs, and I/O interfaces functions such as digital up/down converters, digital filters, and modems. Essential radio functions such as digital filtering, frequency mixing, and signal generation are processed in the ASICs, whose characteristics are changed by setting parameters. Other functions depending on each system standard such as modem, channel codec, and speech codec are realized in the FPGAs or the DSPs, whose operations are reconfigured by replacing software.

program is described in section 4.

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Figure 2. Architecture of the Software-defined Radio

3. BROADBAND RF-STAGE CONFIGURATION

In section 3, the software-defined radio architecture of the broadband analog-stage is discussed.

Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the multi-mode radio using (a) a conventional multiband receiver with multiple chains and (b) a multiband receiver using the software-defined radio.
.Frequency Conversion .Channel Selectton 'Frequency Conversion

2.2. Software
The software consists of basic programs and application programs. Basic programs : The basic programs consist of radio function libraries, OS and device drivers. Radio function libraries : The radio function libraries are the sets that express basic radio functions, which contain filter programs for FPGA, modem programs for DSP, or the hardware control commands. OS and device drivers : The OS is run on the CPU to control overall operation of the software-defined radio. The device drivers are programs for each hardware control such as an amplifier, a synthesizer, an ADC and a DSP. Application program : The application program is prepared for a specific radio standard, such as GSM, IS-95, or IMT-2000. Execution procedure for the application

(a) Conventional multi-band Radio

(b) Software-defined Radio

Figure 3. Comparison of Multi-band and Software-defined Radio For multi-mode applications, the multi-band receiver in Figure 3 (a) is equipped with one receiver chain for each standard. It selects the channel according to different carrier frequency and different channel bandwidth using fixed analog-defined channel selection filters. On the other hand, in the software-defined radio in Figure 3 (b), the received multi-channels are fed to the single wideband analog-stage. Then all channels are converted to digital signal with one wideband high-speed ADC. The desired channel is then selected from the digitized multi-channels with

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the software-defined channel selection filters in the digital-stage. This latter architecture has flexibility in that the performance of the filters can be changed by setting tap parameters. The software-defined radio requires the broadband RF-stage which ideally feeds the signals over the entire system bandwidth to the ADC. One of the candidates for realizing the wideband RF section for the software-defined radio is the direct conversion receiver. The direct conversion architecture inherently has no image response and thus the fixed-frequency image rejection filters, which are necessary in a super-heterodyne receiver, can be eliminated, and anti-alias low-pass filters can be designed with variable bandwidth filters embedded in an LSI chip. Recently, the direct conversion principle has attracted widespread attention due to its compatibility with multi-standards [4].

radio where the digitized baseband signals are reconverted to the programmable IF with image rejection configuration. The IF signals are digitally down-converted to the baseband to select the desired channel.

Image Rejection Mixer

Figure 6. Direct Conversion Architecture - Up Conversion Configuration The software-defined radio adopting broadband RF-stage illustrated in Figure 6 was evaluated under the conditions shown in Table 1. Figure 7 shows the evaluation results, which indicate that each signal is selected by software control. Table 1. Evaluation Conditions
Center Frequency 1899.75MHz 1900.25MHz Modulation Scheme d4-DQPSK GMSK Transmission Rate 384kbps 270.833kbps

Figure 4. Direct Conversion Architecture - Basic Configuration Figure 4 shows the basic configuration of the direct conversion receiver where received signals are down-converted to baseband directly by the quadrature mixer using a local oscillator whose frequency is fixed at the center of the system band of interest. The baseband signals which contain entire system bandwidth are roughly selected by low-pass filters (LPFs) for an anti-alias purpose and then converted into digital signals by IQ ADCs. The digitized signals are fed to the digital-stage where a desired channel is frequency converted to baseband IQ signals with programmable down converters and then selected. Finally, the original data sequence is recovered (Figure 5 ) .

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Figure 5 . Down Conversion of Desired Signal using Direct Conversion Scheme Figure 6 shows the typical architecture of the direct conversion receiver for the software-defined

Figure 7. Evaluation Results of Digital Channel Selection

As described above, the direct conversion principle is suitable for the software-defined radio. However, imperfection in the RF quadrature mixer

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such as I-Q gain imbalance or phase error cause residual or latent image responses. Even if IQ gain and pi/2 phase shift are carefully designed, image suppression level cannot be more than 40 dB. The configuration shown in Figure 8 is an effective solution for improving image characteristics where band-pass filter is inserted in the top of the receiver front-end.

The proposed direct conversion architecture is one of the best methods for realizing a broadband RF-stage for the software-defined radio because of its flexibility. The digital-stage subsequent to the broadband analog-stage consists of various programmable devices so that its characteristics can be changed by the commands embedded in application programs described in the next section.

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Figure 8. Direct Conversion Architecture - Up Conversion with BPF Configuration In this configuration, the first local frequency is fixed at a few megahertz lower (or a few megahertz higher) than the lowest (or highest) frequency of the system band of interest so as to eliminate image component with the band-pass filter by the order of 30 to 40 dB (Figure 9). Therefore, together with the image rejection configuration, overall image rejection ratio of 70 to 80 dB will be achieved, which is acceptable for mobile communication application.

4. SOFTWARE EXECUTION PROCEDURE

The software execution procedure in the conventional radio is shown in Figure 11. All software such as DSP programs, HDL programs or hardware control commands are directly written in an application program. In this manner, the application program has no compatibility with another hardware because the application program depends on the specific hardware. This is a serious defect for realizing the software-defined radio because of a lack of flexibility of the application programs.

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Figure 11. Conventional Software Execution Procedure Figure 12 shows the proposed software execution procedure. The application program defines a specific radio standard in the softwaredefined radio. Only the functions and the specifications for the standard are described in the program, and commands dependent on the hardware never appear. For example, system specification of the desired signal such as carrier frequency, modulation scheme, and transmission rate are described in the application program, while commands to the hardware, such as amplifier gain control and synthesizer channel setting, are embedded in the basic programs such as libraries, OS, and device drivers. The radio function libraries contain hardware control programs such as HDL for FPGSs, DSP assembler codes and control data for ASICs and the analog-stage. The commands in the application programs refer the libraries to be converted to the hardware control programs in order to reconcile the

Figure 9. Down Conversion of Desired Signal using Band Limited Direct Conversion Scheme Figure 10 shows another configuration with two digital quadrature mixers and a variable frequency oscillator for channel selection. These two quadrature mixers function as a complex multiplier with image rejection characteristic [ 5 ] . Consequently, it operates identically to the configuration in Figure 8.

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Figure 10. Direct Conversion Architecture - Complex Multiplier Configuration
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differences between many kinds of hardware. The software execution procedure is described in the following. First, the application program is compiled and linked to the radio function libraries in order to generate an executable file. The file consists of the software which depends on hardware such as DSP programs, and HDL. The program embedded in the file linked to the libraries is downloaded to the software-defined radio to be executed. During the execution, the hardware is controlled by the application program indirectly through the OS and the device drivers.

REFERENCES

OS / Device Drivers
ILTER

J. Mitla, The Software Radio Architecture, IEEE Communications Magazine, vo1.33 No. 5, pp. 26-38, 1995. H. Harada and M. Fujise, Multimode Software Radio System by Parameter Controlled and Telecommunication Toolbox Embedded Digital Signal Processing Chipset, Proc. o ACTS Mobile Summit 98, pp. 115f 120, 1998. H. Tsurumi and Y. Suzuki, Broadband RF Architecture for Software-Defined Radio in Handheld Terminal Applications, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 90-95, 1999. A. Fernandez-Duran, et al., Zero-IF Receiver Architecture for Multistandard Compatible Radio Systems. Girafe Project, Proc. 46th IEEE VTC, vol. 2, pp. 1052-1056, 1996. P. R. Gray and R. G. Meyer, Future Directions of Silicon ICs for RF Personal Communications, CICC 95, pp. 368-369, 1995.

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Figure 12. Software Execution Procedure With the proposed sequence, the application program does not depend on a specific hardware, and therefore can be applied completely independent of the hardware. This enables the application program for a specific mobile standard to be applied in various kinds of hardware. Consequently, the need for the individual development of application software for each hardware is eliminated.
5. CONCLUSIONS

A radio terminal architecture for softwaredefined radio implementation and broadband RF front-end applying the direct conversion principle are proposed. And a software execution procedure utilizing radio function libraries for a multi-mode software-defined radio system is also proposed. They can enable software-defined radio to be a completely general-purpose radio terminal which is reconfigurable by changing only the application program for various mobile standards.

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