These application frameworks provide a substantial starting point for researchers to find ways to improve and build prototyping systems. Some example research includes exploring brand-new algorithms and architectures that can support the tremendous increase of the number of terminals, inventing new waveforms by which to modulate and demodulate the signals, or finding new multi-antenna architectures that fully exploit the degrees of freedom in the wireless medium.
The frameworks are designed from the ground up for easy modifiability. This allows wireless researchers to quickly get their real-time prototype up and running based on the LTE and 802.11 standards as well as MIMO technology. They can then primarily focus on the selected aspects of the protocol that they wish to improve, easily modify the designs, and compare their innovations with existing standards.
The PHY and MAC blocks are documented in the product and presented in a graphical block diagram form using LabVIEW Communications. They have clearly defined interfaces, documented system performance benchmarks, and computational resource usage. Additionally, LabVIEW Communications is shipped with a video-streaming application that shows the transfer of real-time data over the air using these standards-compliant wireless links.
Relevant parameters for the wireless links are easily adjustable from the software front panel generated with LabVIEW Communications. Furthermore, relevant link metrics, including received power spectrum, received constellation, throughput, and block error rates, are also displayed for easy assessment of the link quality. They allow researchers to understand the effects of various parameters on communications performance.
These application frameworks, combined with the ease of development LabVIEW Communications provides and the seamless integration with NI SDR hardware, enable wireless researchers to innovate faster and reduce time to market for their next breakthrough innovations.