A highly re-configurable Instruments-in-Matlab Software-Defined Radio platform for 4G SC-FDMA signal measurements and analysis

This paper presents a highly re-configurable Instruments-in-Matlab Software-Defined Radio (IM-SDR) platform for 4G LTE Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing (SC-FDMA) signal measurement and analysis. The high configurability of the SDR comes from the real-time seamless integration of the versatile MATLAB software with many high-end instruments like arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), vector signal generator, channel emulator, wideband IQ demodulator, and digital storage scope etc., for transmitting and receiving the real-world 4G signals. Via Ethernet/GPIB, each instrument is controlled by and interfaced to either Matlab TX or RX program to serve as a block in the complete radio chain. Moreover, the SC-FDMA TX/RX programs also implement all the required algorithms and functional blocks for the baseband transceiver, including FFT-based modulation/demodulation, packet formation/detection, CFO estimation/compensation, and channel estimation/ equalization, etc.. Finally, experimental results are included to verify the proposed IM-SDR approach.