Towards Software-Defined Radio on Configurable Hardware

Abstract

The evergrowing amount of IoT devices induce the need for multi-protocol gateways in order to create heterogeneous networks. Modern-day IoT gateways are able to handle vast amounts of data, but are difficult to reconfigure when adding nodes which use a new communication standard. The goal of this thesis is to take a look at the role of configurable hardware within software-defined radio gateways.

The approach to this thesis is divided into three parts. First, the architecture of the provided bladeRF x115 Software Defined Radio (SDR) is configured to receive and retransmit 6LoWPAN messages. This way, its capabilities as an IoT gateway were explored. Then, four different Simulink/Matlab simulations are constructed to mimic a ZigBee transceiver system. All their BER values are determined when passing a distorted channel and compared to implementations without DSSS and MLE. Finally, based on these results, a ZigBee physical layer modulator Hardware Description Language (HDL) simulation is constructed and tested.

The HDL simulation is able to convert 32-bit input sequences into 12-bit signed half sine samples within 14 system clock cycles. Although the design induces some delays, it meets the required functionality and forms a foundation for further research. Based on all the test results, it can be concluded that acceleration through configurable hardware will play a significant role within IoT multi-protocol gateways.