Background
Software-defined radio (SDR) is a programmable wireless device that is commonly used for prototyping and deployment applications in wireless research. SDR is commonly used in areas such as communications, next-generation radar, electronic warfare (EW), over-the-air (OTA) test and measurement, and 5G 6G research. Most SDRs have a common hardware architecture, including general-purpose processors (GPPs), FPGAs, and RF front-ends with different performance.
Software defined radio equipment allows users to develop applications on the host computer, and engineers use the following common tools:
Mathworks MATLAB software.
Develop applications directly using C++, Python, or C.
Take advantage of open-source SDR frameworks such as GNU Radio.
Leverage open source mobile communication protocol stacks such as SRSLTE and Open Air Interface 5G.
If the processing power of the host is insufficient or the latency is too large, the signal processing hardware acceleration can also be performed on the FPGA chip of the software defined radio equipment itself.
YUNSDR is a portfolio of software-defined radio products designed to meet a wide range of wireless prototyping and deployment needs. Whether you are a beginner in the radio field or an experienced technical expert, you can find a suitable YunSDR development platform to realize your ideas.
Yunsdr is not only a hardware, but also a development tool. Through a wealth of reference designs and industry application cases, we can help customers quickly realize prototype system verification and accelerate the pace of innovation!
Since the birth of the first YUNSDR, it has been constantly innovating and upgrading to challenge the performance limits of the SDR industry and meet the design needs of different customers.
Push the bandwidth limits of software defined radio
At present, the bandwidth of mainstream software defined radio products is usually 100MHz to 200MHz, and high-end products can reach 400MHz. The Yunsdr Y790 is built on the 3rd Gen Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSOC with an instantaneous bandwidth of up to 2GHz, making it the first in the commercial software defined radio space.
The reason why such high performance can be achieved is that the Y790 uses high-speed ADCs and DACs at the high-end instrumentation level, and the ADC sampling rate can reach an astonishing speed of 5GSPS in 14-bit high-precision mode. And DAC this can reach a staggering 985gsps。The benefit of 2GHz real-time bandwidth is that it not only meets the highest bandwidth requirements of existing commercial protocols, but also supports future communication standards, such as 6G mmWave and high-bandwidth scenarios such as satellite communications. For spectrum analysis, RF recording and playback, etc., the larger the bandwidth, the more information that can be observed at the same time, which can replace traditional high-end instruments or multiple devices.
At present, the signal bandwidth of WiFi6 is up to 160MHz, and in the future, WiFi7 will reach 320MHz. The bandwidth of the mmWave standard for 5G can reach up to 800MHz, and the bandwidth of some standards for satellite communications needs to reach 960MHz. If you use channels** and analog, then the higher the bandwidth, the better, maybe 1GHz or even 2GHz. Therefore, the Yunsdr Y790 is a future-proof software defined radio platform that can almost meet the bandwidth requirements of wireless communication standards in the next 5 to 10 years.
In addition to the most important instantaneous bandwidth, the main criteria for measuring the performance of a software-defined radio platform are frequency band range, number of channels, baseband capability, and data interfaces
The frequency band range covers mainstream applications
The current wireless communication standard is basically within 6GHz, and high-bandwidth communication applications are generally in the millimeter wave frequency band. Because only millimeter wave can provide such a rich spectrum resource. The degree of support for mmWave is also an important evaluation parameter for high-end software-defined radio platforms.
YUNSDR Y790 provides a complete solution that supports 5G FR2 frequency bands (28GHz and 39GHz), through the matching up-and-down inverter, it can support 24GHz 44GHz continuous frequency conversion, bandwidth supports 400MHz and 800MHz modes, and provides 4x4 and 8x8 phased array antennas, which meet the related research of 5G millimeter wave communication and beamforming, and also support the technical exploration of future 6G standards.
The mmWave antenna assembly of the Yunsdr Y790.
Based on the YUNSDR Y790 and its millimeter wave components, a complete millimeter wave prototype verification and test platform is built.
The number of channels can be cascaded and expanded
For the first time, the RFSoC integrates an embedded processor, data converter (ADC DAC), and programmable FPGA into a single device for wireless communication, providing up to 16 transceiver channels on a single chip.
The Yunsdr Y790 offers eight transmit and eight receive channels, far exceeding most mass-produced software defined radio products in terms of channel count and instantaneous bandwidth.
The Yunsdr Y790 consolidates eight transmit and eight receive channels into a compact rack wideband 2U height form factor, making it easier to transport for field testing and operation. Each channel is independent, which means that each channel can be tuned to a different frequency for frequency division multiplexing (FDD) applications or multiple signals at the same time. The channels can also be synchronized via an internal thermostatic crystal oscillator (OCXO) with an internal GPS tamed oscillator (GPSDO) for timestamping, providing a 10 MHz reference and pulses per second (pps).
High-performance baseband and high-speed interfaces
With the increase in the number of channels and bandwidth, the massive baseband data undoubtedly poses a huge challenge to the signal processing capacity and memory throughput rate of the platform. The ZU47DR used in the YNSDR Y790 provides the necessary computing resources required for the UDC DDC due to the digital signal processing of wideband signals, which requires a large amount of FPGA logic resources.
In addition to FPGA resources, the chip also integrates an ARM processor system to meet the needs of high-level algorithms and system scheduling, and has rich interfaces, which can also support GUI human-computer interaction interface and network control interface.
For big data exchanges, on-board off-chip memory system throughput is also important. The Yunsdr Y790 provides three sets of DDR4 memory, each 64-bit wide and running at 2400MHz. Among them, the PS processor system has a separate group, and the PL system has two independent sets of memory, which can meet the demanding data throughput requirements.
Tomorrow's wireless systems will require more computing power to handle increasingly complex algorithms, which will often not be sufficient on a single board, and data will need to be passed to more powerful computing systems, such as FPGA arrays or computer clusters. High-speed optical fiber interfaces have become the standard configuration of high-performance SDR systems, and the number and rate of optical ports are the key to data transmission bandwidth.
YUNSDR Y790 uses dual 100G optical ports as the external data channel of the system, which is also the top configuration of commercial SDR products. The FPGA accelerator card converts the 100G optical port into PCIe30 interface, and provides a complete driver and API interface library, users can directly call the interface function to obtain data, can support 100G interface full rate communication. In addition, the FPGA of the FPGA accelerator card adopts an open interface, which supports the user's own secondary development to realize the acceleration of the algorithm.
The FX200 accelerator card uses the KU15P of the Xilinx Kintex UltraScale+ family FPGA as the acceleration chip, and the FPGA on the 16nm process provides rich signal processing resources and can also achieve the following functions.
If you need more FPGA processing power, you can upgrade to an FX800 accelerator card. The FX800 uses the Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ series FPGA VU13P as the acceleration chip, providing rich signal processing resources.
Development process support
Communication protocol stack support
Summary
The YUNSDR Y790 provides the ideal validation platform for future-proof radio system applications, with flexible development tools and accompanying softwareYesMeet the technical challenges of 5G 6G, satellite communications, radar simulation, channel**, and other wireless innovations!