MATLAB & Simulink

SIGNAL PROCESSING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Wireless Communications Systems Design with MATLAB and USRP Software-Defined Radios

Course Highlights

This two-day course shows how to design and simulate single- and multi-carrier digital communications systems using MATLAB. Multi-antenna and turbo-coded communication systems are introduced, and different channel impairments and their modeling are demonstrated. Components from LTE and IEEE 802.11 systems will be used as examples. Students will build a radio-in-the-loop system using real-time hardware (RTL-SDR and USRP).

The target audience for this course includes system engineers and RF engineers who need a fast ramp-up on modern communication techniques and the radio-in-the-loop workflow.

Prerequisite

MATLAB® Fundamentals and knowledge of digital communications systems.

Techsource Systems is
Mathworks Sole and Authorised Distributor and Training Partner

• Please keep me posted on the next schedule 

• Please contact me to arrange customized/ in-house training
   

Course Outline

Day 1 of 2

Communication Over a Noiseless Channel

Objective: Modeling an ideal single-carrier communications system and becoming familiar with System objects.

​

• Sampling theorem and aliasing

• Complex baseband versus real passband simulation

• Creating a random bit stream

• System objects and their benefits

• Modulating a bit stream using QPSK

• Applying pulse-shaping to the transmitted signal

• Eye diagrams and spectral analysis

• Modeling a QPSK receiver for a noiseless channel

• Computing bit error rate

Noisy Channels, Channel Coding, and Error Rates

Objective: Modeling an AWGN channel. Using convolutional, LDPC, and turbo codes to reduce bit error rate. Error correcting codes from DVB-S.2 and LTE systems are used as examples. Accelerating simulations using multiple cores.

​

• Modeling an AWGN channel

• Using channel coding and decoding: convolutional, LDPC, and turbo codes

• Trellis diagram and Viterbi decoding

• Using Parallel Computing Toolbox to accelerate Monte Carlo simulations

• Discussion of alternative acceleration methods: GPUs, MDCS, MATLAB Parallel Cloud

Timing and Frequency Errors and Multipath Channels

Objective: Modeling frequency offset, timing jitter errors, and mitigation using frequency and timing synchronization techniques. Modeling flat fading, multipath channels, and mitigation using equalizers.

​

• Modeling phase and timing offsets

• Mitigating frequency offset using a PLL

• Mitigating timing jitter using Gardner timing synchronization

• Modeling flat fading channels

• Channel estimation using training sequences

• Modeling frequency selective fading channels

• Using Viterbi equalizers for time-invariant channels and LMS linear equalizers for time-varying channels

• Demonstration of a real-time demodulation of single-carrier broadcast using RTL-SDR

Day 2 of 2

Multi-carrier Communications Systems for Multipath Channels

Objective: Understanding motivation for multi-carrier communications systems for frequency selective channels. Modeling an OFDM transceiver with a cyclic prefix and windowing. System parameter values from IEEE 802.11ac and LTE will be used.

​

• Motivation for multi-carrier communications

• Introduction to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

• Generating OFDM symbols using the IFFT

• Preventing inter-block interference using a cyclic prefix

• Using windowing to reduce out-of-band emissions

• Advantages and disadvantages of OFDM

• Timing and frequency recovery methods for OFDM

• Channel estimation using pilot symbols

• Frequency domain equalization

Using Multiple Antennas for Robustness and Capacity Gains

Objective: Understanding alternative multiple antenna communications system. Modeling beamforming, diversity, and spatial multiplexing systems. Constructing a MIMO-OFDM system for wideband communications. MIMO modes of IEEE 802.11ac and LTE will be discussed.

​

• Advantages and types of multi-antenna systems

• Transmit and receive beamforming

• Receive diversity techniques

• Achieving transmit diversity using orthogonal space-time block codes

• Narrowband multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) channel model

• MIMO channel estimation

• Spatial multiplexing using ZF and MMSE equalization

• Wideband communications using an MIMO-OFDM system

Building a Radio-in-the-Loop System

Objective: Understanding the radio-in-the-loop development workflow. Using RTL-SDRs and USRPs as radio-in-the-loop development platforms.

​

• Overview of the radio-in-the-loop workflow

• MathWorks communications hardware support (RTL-SDR, USRP, Zynq-Based Radio)

• Hardware alternative comparison (pros/cons table)

• Different RIL transmit and receive modes (single burst, looped, streamed)

• Build an end-to-end single-antenna multi-carrier communications system using a USRP

• Demonstration of a 2x2 OFDM-MIMO over-the-air system using USRPs