A multiprocessor framework for rapid-prototyping and evaluation of soft transceivers

Recent years have seen rapid evolution in the architectures being explored for realizing high-speed software-defined radios. There is, however, a distinct need for a low-cost programmable platform where algorithms for base-band transceivers can be rapidly prototyped and tested with real-world data, streaming in from diverse sources of telecommunication traffic. This paper explores an analytical method for laying out such a generic platform. It investigates the constraints involved in realizing such a platform, and the minimum functionality needed within the solution so as to provide adequate scalability to allow the implementation of a wide variety of communication algorithms. The paper concludes with a case study of a multi-channel communication system that has been successfully implemented on the proposed platform, highlighting the performance benchmarks it had to meet in order to prove suitable for the task of communication system evaluation.