Novel Hardware and Algorithms for Next Generation SDR Architectures

Applications are invited for a 3 year Ph.D. studentship on the theme described below, as part of The University of Sheffield’s Communications Research Group and Advanced Radio Technology Centre.

Details

The concept 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 RF 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 novel implementation.
The research topic can be chosen from one or more of (but not limited to):-
• High Intermediate Frequency (IF) data conversion (ADCs / DACs)
• RF Sampling transceiver architectures
• 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 and algorithms
• SDR system design for future mmWave transceivers (fixed and mobile)
• Usage and implementation of novel SDR algorithms on commercial, cost-effective platforms such as RTL-SDR and Red Pitaya.

Researchers can expect to become involved in designing novel hardware and related DSP or control software for their proposed system(s) and then trialling and enhancing them for optimal operation in the Lab and in field trials. The Communications Research Group is working on multiple areas of wireless communications technology including mmWave, Massive MIMO and IoT systems. The technology emerging from the researcher’s chosen project will contribute to these research themes, their associated test platforms and demonstrator systems as well as a next-generation SDR platform.