Analytical and Simulation-based Design Space Exploration of Software Defined Radios

The proposed idea of software defined radios (SDRs) offers the potential to cope with the complexity and flexibility demands of future wireless communication devices. Unfortunately, the tight interaction of software and hardware as well as the high computational requirements make development of SDRs to one of the most challenging tasks system architects are facing today. The main challenge is to select the optimal or a sub-optimal solution within the large design space spread by the many design options. This paper introduces a novel design space exploration framework for particular early development stages. The key contribution is a pre-simulation based mathematical analysis based on synchronous data flow (SDF) graphs in order to take the right software and hardware design decisions. This analysis can be utilized right from the start of the design cycle with only limited knowledge of the final implementation. In addition, the proposed technique seamlessly integrates into an electronic system level (ESL) based simulation framework. This allows for a smooth transition from pure mathematical analysis to the simulation of the final implementation. The practical usage of the framework and its capabilities are highlighted by a case study from a typical SDR design.