Flexible channelisation architectures for Software Defined Radio front ends using the Tuneable Pipelined Frequency Transform

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of the Tuneable Pipelined Frequency Transform (TPFT) to Software Defined Radio front ends channelisers. To provide a basis for comparison, existing techniques for real-time wideband channelisation are examined first, including multiple digital down-converters (DDC´s), the pipelined FFT and Polyphase DFT´s. The basic Pipelined Frequency Transform (PFT) is then explained and, finally, its derivative, the Tuneable PFT (TPFT). The main objective is to establish the application areas where the tuneable PFT can provide the optimum solution. Although based on a firm theoretical background, the paper is of a practical nature, giving real examples which have been designed, placed, routed and tested in FPGA´s. Useful information for the system or design engineer includes siliconperformance trade-offs and memory requirements.