Real-FlexE: Real-time Flexible channel Emulator

In digital communications, accurately modeling and replicating the channel effects between a transmitter and receiver is essential to assess their impact on transmitted data. Access to a real-time channel emulator is therefore crucial in the development of telecommunication systems. This paper presents a configurable, flexible, and high-performance FPGA-based channel emulator that supports multiple channel models, including Doppler, AWGN, and multi-path Fading. We explore bit-width precision in the components and present trade-offs between quality and resource utilization. Our exploration demonstrates $\sim 25\text{\%}$–$\sim 45\text{\%}$ savings in various resources while maintaining the accuracy of the channel effects and operating at a high throughput of 500 Msps.