This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project demonstrates the Wideband Advanced Filter Bank Universal Software Receiver (AFB Comm-Universal), which offers lower power, smaller size, and lower cost by processing wideband data in software instead of dedicated hardware. The architecture leverages the wideband, high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion capabilities of the V-Corp proprietary Advanced Filter Bank Analog-to-Digital Converter (AFB ADC) together with the real-time computational power of the Pentium III processor as the backbone. The real-time digital processing (including down-conversion, demodulation, channel selection, etc.) is performed in software on the universally-supported, familiar Windows NT/2000 platform. Software can easily be changed to accommodate different signalling protocols or updated to integrate new standards as they arise. The design is modular to be continuously upgradeable as new analog-to-digital conversion technology and processing power becomes available. Note that V-Corp has built hardware successfully implementing the AFB analog-to-digital converter with 12-bit resolution and 260 MHz sample rate. The objective of the SBIR Phase I project is to demonstrate the high-performance backbone of the AFB Comm-Universal receiver by designing and testing the key components of the high-speed data acquisition link on the host computer with real-time data from the Advanced Filter Bank Analog-to-Digital converter. This architecture will provide real-time data acquisition of wideband analog data digitized with 12-bit resolution and 260 MHz sample rate. The Phase I option will include testing of key RF front-end electronics to demonstrate the performance and flexibility of the architecture. Phase II will be dedicated to realizing the full prototype system including the RF front-end electronics and real-time software digital signal processing (which will be performed on the host computer) and shrinking the receiver hardware to a compact PCMCIA card. Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: The AFB Comm-Universal receiver is a powerful, generic software radio architecture that can be outfitted with a wide variety of RF front-end electronics to support a wide range of frequencies for different applications, such as airborne military radios, anti-jam GPS receivers, cellular basestation receivers, adaptive antenna array receivers, and radar.
Keywords: wideband, high-resolution, software radio, advanced digital receiver
