Technical Articles

Third-Party Products: Hardware for Wireless Testing with MATLAB and Simulink


Third-party products enable engineers, hobbyists, and students to prototype and test wireless system designs with MATLAB® and Simulink® using a range of hardware platforms. Developers can transmit and receive wireless data under real-world conditions and implement algorithms on programmable software-defined radio (SDR) hardware. High-performance testing equipment helps engineers validate their implementations of wireless standards with MATLAB.


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Analog Devices, Avnet, and Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC-Based SDR Hardware

With Xilinx® Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC-based hardware and Analog Devices® RF transceivers, developers can verify communications algorithms and prototype wireless systems. Xilinx Zynq-7000 All-Programmable SoCs combine a dual-core ARM® Cortex®-A9 processing system with Xilinx 7 series programmable logic on a single chip, enabling optimized, hardware and software-based data processing. The Analog Devices AD9361 RF Agile Transceiver™ adds an RF front end, mixed-signal baseband section, and frequency synthesizers, tunable from 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz. Hardware support packages enable users to test their designs under real-world conditions by transmitting and receiving RF signals with MATLAB and Simulink. Developers can use Zynq-7000 SoC SDR support with HDL Coder™ to prototype and deploy custom radio designs on hardware. Zynq-7000 SoC-based SDR kits and modules such as the AD936x System on Module (SOM) SDR, are available from Avnet.


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NooElec: RTL-SDR Hardware

NooElec offers a series of low-cost USB dongles for students and hobbyists to develop broadcast radio, digital audio/video broadcast, GPS receivers, and other wireless applications. They can connect Communications System Toolbox™ to any RTL-SDR USB radio to learn communications concepts and validate systems developed in MATLAB and Simulink. The RTL-SDR radio support package enables users to design wireless receivers using actual signals at frequencies from 25 MHz to 2300 MHz.


Ettus Research: USRP Hardware

The USRP™ product line includes the USRP Bus Series for low-cost experimentation, the USRP Networked and X Series for more sophisticated prototyping, and the USRP Embedded Series for production deployment, with support for frequencies from DC to 6 GHz. With Communications  System Toolbox and the USRP hardware support package, engineers can use USRP radios as peripherals for importing live RF data I/O into MATLAB. The products support generating code with HDL Coder for deployment on USRP hardware.


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Keysight Technologies: X-Series Signal Analyzers

Keysight X-Series Signal Analyzers provide calibrated instruments for capturing and analyzing test data, with calibration traceable to NIST and other physical science laboratories. The instruments are used by engineers engaged in cellular, wireless connectivity, MILCOM, SATCOM, and general-purpose testing. Test engineers can configure, control, and acquire data from the instruments directly from MATLAB using Instrument Control Toolbox™ and perform custom measurements using Communications System Toolbox. The instruments can also be used with LTE System Toolbox™ to analyze LTE standard-compliant wireless signals.

Published 2015 - 92924v00