Next Generation SDR architectures and subsystems

Applications are invited for a 3 year Ph.D. studentship on the theme described below, as part of the Communications Research Group.

Details
The field of Software Defined Radio (SDR) is now relatively mature and has been applied to commercial radio system design and integrated circuit design tasks for several years. The move to an ‘all-digital’ transceiver, where the antenna terminates in an Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) or Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC), with the whole of the radio function being performed using digital electronics and DSP, is seen as the ultimate technological goal. This is particularly true for radios requiring an extremely high degree of reconfigurability or low manufacturing cost. However, hybrid analogue & SDR systems still have much to offer for very high-performance RF applications, or where efficient DC power consumption is a concern.
The purpose of this project is for the researcher to investigate existing leading-edge capability and performance in an area of interest associated with next generation SDR or ‘all-digital radio’ and then identify how this could be improved, with a view to future implementation. Areas for future research include (but are not limited to):

• High Intermediate Frequency (IF) data conversion (ADCs / DACs)
• RF power amplifiers for ‘all-digital’ radios (e.g. class S)
• Efficient techniques for all–digital up-conversion / down-conversion
• Linearization strategies for full RX / TX chains (with efficient use of DSP)
• DSP algorithms associated with RX signal detection & TX signal generation
• Cognitive Radio hardware architectures

Where possible, researchers can expect to become involved in designing hardware and software for their proposed system(s) and then trialling them in the Sheffield University Wireless Communications Lab. The project will contribute to the University’s next-generation SDR platform.