RF environment simulation on software defined radio platform

Abstract

Evolution of modern communications and radar systems have steadily increased the demand on modelling the propagation effects with real world scenarios for various signal types. The main purpose of this research is to create a flexible, generic and realistic Radio Frequency (RF) environment simulator including both radar and communication signals. Software defined radio (SDR) platform has been utilized for generating the simulated signals at radio frequencies. Power and delay profiles, frequency selective fading, Doppler effect and noise have been calculated for multiple paths and generated via RF outputs of the SDR. RF outputs of the system is suitable for use in the tests of receivers like direction finding systems and LTE MIMO systems. Communication quality for various terrain profiles and fading scenarios has been experimentally investigated for several signal types using vector signal generators, vector signal analyzers, demodulation and communication analysis tools. This simulation platform can be used in Electromagnetic Compatibility tests of such systems as well.