Design Of Virtual Radio RF Front-end And PCIe Interface Based On FPGA

The coexistence of old and new communication systems make more complex for all kindsof communication system in communication, with the rapid development of communicationtechnology and the constant promulgation of new standards. It is proposed that by using softwarerealize virtual radio in wireless communication, so as to shorten the development cycle andreduced costs. A design of virtual radio RF card based on PCI Express bus interface is describedin this paper.PCI Express high-speed bus is used as the data transmission interface between PC and RFcard. Efficient DMA mechanism is also used to achieve data exchange between bus interfaceswith high data rate and low delay. The RF front-end utilizes direct conversion-frequency instructure, effectively improving the integration of front-end,that is integrating the RF, interfaceand FPGA control sections into a card.The basic structure and module partition is presented with the emphasis on the keytechnology of the whole RF front-end hardware design, and the control logic of local FPGA.Thehardware consists of FPGA, power supply, clock, PCIe, RF cell and the corresponding circuitdiagram. The FPGA section includes DMA control, Antenna, data buffer processing, paramrterconfiguration and timing control module. It is given that timing simulation diagram of eachmodule. The RF front-end card is tested, and the result is analyzed and concluded.Verified by practice, at700MHz-900MHz, the RF card has good performance with emissionand receiver. Protocol switching is achieved in the RF card by modifying the correspondingapplication and FPGA program. The RF card has good versatility, it can be used in softwareradio to transmit and receive radio signals, as a wireless network card or a testing equipment ofwireless system, even be a communication system in industry network.