Commercial Baseband Technology Overview: The Current State of Technology Development and Future Directions Document WINNF-09-P-0009-V1.0.0 Version 1.0.0 5 February 2010 Copyright © 2010 The Software Defined Radio Forum Inc. – All Rights Reserved Commercial Baseband Processing Technologies Work Group Commercial Baseband Technology Overview WINNF-09-P-0009-V1.0.0 TERMS, CONDITIONS & NOTICES This document has been prepared by the Commercial Baseband Processing Technologies Work Group to assist The Software Defined Radio Forum Inc. (or its successors or assigns, hereafter “the Forum”). It may be amended or withdrawn at a later time and it is not binding on any member of the Forum or of the Commercial Baseband Processing Technologies Work Group. Contributors to this document that have submitted copyrighted materials (the Submission) to the Forum for use in this document retain copyright ownership of their original work, while at the same time granting the Forum a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license under the Submitter’s copyrights in the Submission to reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, and create derivative works of the Submission based on that original work for the purpose of developing this document under the Forum's own copyright. Permission is granted to the Forum’s participants to copy any portion of this document for legitimate purposes of the Forum. Copying for monetary gain or for other non-Forum related purposes is prohibited. THIS DOCUMENT IS BEING OFFERED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, AND IN PARTICULAR, ANY WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. ANY USE OF THIS SPECIFICATION SHALL BE MADE ENTIRELY AT THE IMPLEMENTER'S OWN RISK, AND NEITHER THE FORUM, NOR ANY OF ITS MEMBERS OR SUBMITTERS, SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY WHATSOEVER TO ANY IMPLEMENTER OR THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT. Recipients of this document are requested to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent claims or other intellectual property rights of which they may be aware that might be infringed by any implementation of the specification set forth in this document, and to provide supporting documentation. Wireless Innovation Forum ™ and SDR Forum ™ are trademarks of the Software Defined Radio Forum Inc. Copyright © 2010 The Software Defined Radio Forum Inc Page i All Rights Reserved Commercial Baseband Processing Technologies Work Group Commercial Baseband Technology Overview WINNF-09-P-0009-V1.0.0 Table of Contents TERMS, CONDITIONS & NOTICES ............................................................................................ i Contributors ................................................................................................................................... vi 1 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................1 2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................2 3 Description of Contents...............................................................................................................3 Chapter 1 – Techniques for Commercial SDR Waveform Development (Etherstack) ...................4 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................4 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................4 2 What is a Commercial SDR Waveform? ....................................................................................5 2.1 Portability .........................................................................................................................6 2.2 Maintainability .................................................................................................................6 2.3 Real-time Embedded Performance ..................................................................................6 3 Industry Status of SDR Waveform Development .......................................................................6 3.1 SDR Waveform Specialisation ........................................................................................7 3.2 Separation of Waveform and Platform Development ......................................................8 4 Commercial SDR Waveform Design at Etherstack ....................................................................8 4.1 Specification and Design .................................................................................................9 4.2 Implementation ................................................................................................................9 4.3 Integration ......................................................................................................................10 4.4 Maintenance ...................................................................................................................13 5 Porting to the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) .................................................14 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................15 7 References .................................................................................................................................15 Chapter 2 – IMEC’s low power SDR Solution ..............................................................................16 1 Solution target ...........................................................................................................................16 2 Functional Partitioning ..............................................................................................................16 3 Baseband Platform ....................................................................................................................17 3.1 Description .....................................................................................................................17 3.2 Implementation facts ......................................................................................................18 3.3 Baseband Engine ............................................................................................................18 3.3.1 CGA architecture exploration framework .............................................................19 3.3.2 Exploration methodology.......................................................................................20 3.3.3 SDR ADRES instance............................................................................................20 3.3.4 Implementation facts ..............................................................................................21 3.3.5 Performance facts...................................................................................................21 3.3.6 Availability ............................................................................................................23 3.4 Digital Front-End ...........................................................................................................23 3.4.1 DFE Architecture ...................................................................................................23 3.4.2 Power detection and AGC controller .....................................................................25 3.4.3 Synchronization engine ..........................................................................................26 Copyright © 2010 The Software Defined Radio Forum Inc Page ii All Rights Reserved Commercial Baseband Processing Technologies Work Group Commercial Baseband Technology Overview WINNF-09-P-0009-V1.0.0 3.4.4 Implementation facts ..............................................................................................27 3.4.5 Performance facts...................................................................................................27 3.4.6 Availability ............................................................................................................27 4 References .................................................................................................................................28 Chapter 3 – The Sandbridge Sandblaster SB3500 SDR MPSoC Baseband Processor for 4G Handsets .........................................................................................................................................29 Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................29 1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................29 2 Architecture Overview ..............................................................................................................31 2.1 Vector Unit.....................................................................................................................32 2.1.1 Element-wise operations ........................................................................................32 2.2 Reduction operations .....................................................................................................33 2.3 Specialized operations ...................................................................................................33