Direct downconversion of multiband RF signals using bandpass sampling

Abstract-Bandpass sampling can be used by radio receivers to directly digitize the radio frequency (RF) signals. Although the bandpass sampling theory for single-band RF signals is well established, its counterpart for multiband RF signals is relatively immature. In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient method to find the ranges of valid bandpass sampling frequency for direct downconverting multiband RF signals. Simple formulas for the ranges of valid bandpass sampling frequency in terms of the frequency locations of the multiple RF bands are derived. The result can be used to design a multiband receiver for software defined radios.     

Complex bandpass sampling and direct downconversion of multiband analytic signals

The kernel concept of the software defined radio architecture is to eliminate the analogue mixers and to place analogue-to-digital converters as near the antenna as possible. Bandpass sampling can be used for direct downconversion without analogue mixers. In this paper, we report an efficient method to find the ranges of valid bandpass sampling frequency for direct downconverting multiple bandpass analytic signals (single-sideband RF signals). The algorithm results in the ranges of valid bandpass sampling frequency for the complex signals in terms of bandwidths and band positions of the single-sideband RF signals. Compared to real bandpass sampling, the valid sampling frequency ranges are easier to find and the ranges thus obtained having much wider interval than those of real sampling. As a consequence, the complex sampling scheme is more flexible in choosing sampling frequency and more robust to the sampling frequency variation. Furthermore, if spectral inversion is not permitted, then in some cases there will have no applicable sampling frequency under Nyquist rate for real sampling.     

带通采样在数字多通道中频接收机中的应用

论述了带通信号采样定理,在对带通采样后的频谱结构做了详细分析的基础上,提出中频频率、采样频率的选取方法。将带通欠采样技术运用到软件无线电中频接收机设计中,并给出了带通采样定理在的不同条件下Matlab仿真的结果,验证了带通采样技术在宽带数字多通道、多速率、多模式软件无线电中频接收机设计中的可行性和实用性,在工程应用中具有较大的参考意义。     

基于软件无线电的导航信号直接带通采样方案研究

航电系统中,软件无线电被认为是实现射频综合的最佳途径。研究了导航信号的射频直接采样方法,对双频段的直接带通采样进行了分析,给出了双频段有效采样频率的计算方法。针对我国北斗卫星1．2GHz和1．5GHz2个频点附近的导航信号,按照文中给出的直接带通采样频率的计算方法确定了有效的采样频率,并进行了相应的Matlab仿真实验...     

A Novel Receiver Architecture for DBF Antenna Array

The developments of the high speed analog to digital converters （ADC） and advanced digital signal processors （DSP） make the smart antenna with digital beamforming （DBF） a reality. In conventional M-elements array antenna system, each element has its own receiving channel and ADCs. In this paper, a novel smart antenna receiver with digital beamforming is proposed. The essential idea is to realize the digital beamforming receiver based on bandpass sampling of multiple distinct intermediate frequency （IF） signals. The proposed system reduces receiver hardware from M IF channels and 2M ADCs to one IF channel and one ADC using a heterodyne radio frequency （RF） circuitry and a multiple bandpass sampling digital receiver. In this scheme, the sampling rate of the ADC is much higher than the summation of the M times of the signal bandwidth. The local oscillator produces different local frequency for each RF channel The receiver architecture is presented in detail, and the simulation of bandpass sampling of multiple signals and digital down conversion to baseband is given. The principle analysis and simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the new proposed receiver.     

Design and practical implementation of multifrequency RF front ends using direct RF sampling

The use of direct RF sampling has been explored as a means of designing multifrequency RF front ends. Such front ends will be useful to multifrequency RF applications such as global navigation satellite system receivers that use global positioning system (GPS) L1, L2, and L5 signals and Galileo signals. The design of a practical multifrequency direct RF sampling front end is dependent on having an analog-to-digital converter whose input bandwidth accommodates the highest carrier frequency and whose maximum sampling frequency is more than twice the cumulative bandwidth about the multiple carrier signals. The principle of direct RF sampling is used to alias all frequency bands of interest onto portions of the Nyquist bandwidth that do not overlap. This paper presents a new algorithm that finds the minimum sampling frequency that avoids overlap. This design approach requires a multifrequency bandpass filter for the frequency bands of interest. A prototype front end has been designed, built, and tested. It receives a GPS coarse/acquisition code at the L1 frequency and GPS antispoofing precision code at both L1 and L2. Dual-frequency signals with received carrier-to-noise ratios in excess of 52 dB-Hz have been acquired and tracked using this system.     

Jitter requirements of the sampling clock in software radio receivers

The effective number of bits of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is not only limited by the quantization step inaccuracy but also by sampling time uncertainty. According to a commonly used model, the error caused by timing jitter, integrated over the whole bandwidth, should not be bigger than the quantization noise, for a full swing input signals at the maximum input frequency. This results in unfeasible phase noise requirements for the sampling clock in software radio receivers with direct RF sampling. However, for a radio receiver not the total integrated error is relevant, but only the error signal in the channel bandwidth. This paper explores the clock jitter requirements for a software radio application, using a more realistic model and taking into account the power spectrum of both the input signal and the spectrum of the sampling clock jitter. Using this model, we show that the clock jitter requirements are very similar to reciprocal mixing requirements of superheterodyne receivers.     

RF Band‐Pass Sampling Frontend for Multiband Access CR/SDR Receiver

Radio frequency (RF) subsampling can be used by radio receivers to directly down‐convert and digitize RF signals. A goal of a cognitive radio/software defined ratio (CR/SDR) receiver design is to place the analog‐to‐digital converter (ADC) as near the antenna as possible. Based on this, a band‐pass sampling (BPS) frontend for CR/SDR is proposed and verified. We present a receiver architecture based second‐order BPS and signal processing techniques for a digital RF frontend. This paper is focused on the benefits of the second‐order BPS architecture in spectrum sensing over a wide frequency band range and in multiband receiving without modification of the RF hardware. Methods to manipulate the spectra are described, and reconstruction filter designs are provided. On the basis of this concept, second‐order BPS frontends for CR/SDR systems are designed and verified using a hardware platform.     

Electronically scanned RF-to-bits beam aperture arrays using 2-D IIR spatially bandpass digital filters

A beamforming system based on two-dimensional (2-D) spatially bandpass infinite impulse response (IIR) plane wave filtering is presented in a multi-dimensional signal processing perspective and the implementation details are discussed. Real-time implementation of such beamforming systems requires modeling of computational electromagnetics for the antennas, radio frequency (RF) analog design aspects for low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), mixed-signal aspects for signal quantization and sampling and finally, digital architectures for the spatially bandpass plane wave filters proposed in Joshi et al. (IEEE Trans Very Large Scale Integr Syst 20(12):2241–2254, 2012). Multi-dimensional spatio-temporal spectral properties of down-converted RF plane wave signals are reviewed and derivation of the spatially bandpass filter transfer function is presented. An example of a wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna is simulated at 1 GHz. Potential RF receiver chains are identified including a design of a tunable combline microstrip bandpass filter with tuning range 0.8–1.1 GHz. The 1st-order sensitivity analysis of the beam filter 2-D $\mathbf z $ -domain transfer function shows that for a 12-bits of fixed-point precision, the maximum percentage error in the 2-D magnitude frequency response due to quantization is as low as $0.3\,\%$ . Monte-Carlo simulations are used to study the effect of quantization on the bit error rate (BER) performance of the beamforming system. 5-bit analog to digital converter (ADC) precision with 8-bit internal arithmetic precision provides a gain of approximately 16 dB for a BER of $10^{-3}$ with respect to the no beamforming case. ASIC Synthesis results of the beam filter in 45 nm CMOS verifies a real time operating frequency of 429 MHz.     

Adaptive Complex-Coefficient 2D FIR Trapezoidal Filters for Broadband Beamforming in Cognitive Radio Systems

A novel design method is proposed for an adaptive discrete-domain beamformer for the beamforming of temporally broadband-bandpass signals in cognitive radio (CR) systems. The method is based on a complex-coefficient 2D finite impulse response (FIR) filter having a trapezoidal-shaped passband. The temporally broadband-bandpass signals are received by a 1D uniformly distributed antenna array (1D UDAA), where the outputs of the antennas are complex-quadrature sampled by the front end of the CR system. This CR system is based on a software defined radio (SDR) architecture and can be instantly reconfigured by the control system to select the appropriate frequency band and the required sampling rate. The subsequent beamforming enhances the spectral components of the desired temporally broadband-bandpass signals by arranging for the asymmetric trapezoidal-shaped passband of the 2D filter transfer function to closely enclose the region of support (ROS) of the spectrum of the desired signal, whereas the ROSs of the spectral components of the interfering signals are enclosed by the stopband. The proposed novel closed-form design method facilitates instant adaptation of the shape and orientation of the passband of the beamforming 2D FIR trapezoidal filter in order to match the time-varying frequency band and the time-varying bandwidth of the signal, as well as to track and enhance received signals with time-varying directions of arrival (DOAs). Simulated results confirm that, compared with previously reported methods, the proposed method achieves the best overall tradeoff with respect to the instantaneous adaptations of the operating frequency band, the bandwidth, and the time-varying DOAs, the distortion of the desired passband signal, and the stopband attenuation of interfering signals.     

软件无线电中的带通采样分析

近年来,软件无线电技术以其强大的通用性和灵活性得到了广泛发展和应用。研究了软件无线电中广泛采用的带通采样技术。在给出带通采样定理一般结论的基础上,重点分析了实现无混叠带通采样的条件,得到了边界频率点上4种不同取值情况下带通采样频率的取值范围,并利用时域内插进行了带通采样信号的完全重建。最后,采用Matlab进行了仿真验证。     

机载通信导航识别系统综合检测设备设计与实现

针对机载通信导航识别(Communication,Navigation and Identification,CNI)系统对轻小型地面保障设备提出的更高要求,在分析CNI系统信号特征对地面保障设备硬件平台需求的基础上,通过对比超外差、射频低通采样和射频带通采样等架构的特点,搭建了一种全新的基于软件无线电的综合检测设备通...     

基于双光学频梳的超宽带射频信号信道化合成技术研究（特邀）

随着现代通信系统的发展,宽带和高频微波射频信号在雷达,通信和信号处理等领域的应用越来越广泛。基于微波光子信道化技术,文中通过两个自由频谱范围不同的光学频梳,实现了超宽带射频信号的信道化合成。在信道化合成系统中,多个独立的窄带信号输入各个信道进行上变频,并在多外差探测中被重组成为一个具有连续频谱的宽带射频信号。在多外差探测中,干扰抑制技术的使用提高了合成射频信号可达到的最高频率。在实验中,合成了一个覆盖频率范围8.4~12.4 GHz,瞬时带宽为4 GHz的宽带射频信号。实验结果显示,干扰的抑制率达到了21 dB,表明干扰抑制技术的使用提高了输出信号的最高频率的同时有效地提高了频谱利用率。     

一种宽频段软件无线电平台的设计与实现

针对现代战术通信中背负式或手持电台体积小、功耗小和对不同频段信号兼容性好的应用需求,结合零中频采样和射频直接采样技术,设计了一种可覆盖较宽通信频段的软件无线电平台。通过将模数和数模转换模块与数字信号处理模块集成在一块印制板上,大大减小了该平台的体积。通过平台软件架构的设计,保证不同通信波形体制的实现。最后,通过调频(Frequency Modulation, FM)和正交相移键控(Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, QPSK)波形测试验证了该平台整个频段信号通信性能良好。该平台具有通信频道宽、结构简单、可靠性高等优点,满足小型化、低功耗和对不同频段信号具有高兼容性的使用需求。     

导航信号的射频直接采样与数字下变频方法

研究导航信号的射频直接采样与数字下变频方法,并对1.2GHz和1.5GHz2个频点附近的导航信号进行了仿真验证。首先运用带通采样原理,选择合适的采样频率完成对导航信号的射频直接采样,然后结合积分梳状滤波器、半带滤波器,对采样后的信号进行抽取滤波,实现了降采样率的目的。最后,通过Matlab对5个频点的导航信号进行了仿真验证,完成了导航信号的射频直接采样并降低了采样率,恢复且分离了原始导航信号,从而验证了射频直接采样与数字下变频方法是可行的。     

Variable-phase-shift-based RF-baseband codesign for MIMO antenna selection

We introduce a novel soft antenna selection approach for multiple antenna systems through a joint design of both RF (radio frequency) and baseband signal processing. When only a limited number of frequency converters are available, conventional antenna selection schemes show severe performance degradation in most fading channels. To alleviate those degradations, we propose to adopt a transformation of the signals in the RF domain that requires only simple, variable phase shifters and combiners to reduce the number of RF chains. The constrained optimum design of these shifters, adapting to the channel state, is given in analytical form, which requires no search or iterations. The resulting system shows a significant performance advantage for both correlated and uncorrelated channels. The technique works for both transmitter and receiver design, which leads to the joint transceiver antenna selection. When only a single information stream is transmitted through the channel, the new design can achieve the same SNR gain as the full-complexity system while requiring, at most, two RF chains. With multiple information streams transmitted, it is demonstrated by computer experiments that the capacity performance is close to optimum.     

带通信号的数字正交采样定理及优化设计

在数字正交采样中,带通信号存在频谱迁移问题,虽然满足带通信号的采样定理,仍可能产生频谱混叠。该文证明了带通信号的数字正交采样定理,并讨论了这种采样系统的优化设计。     

多带通信号直接均匀欠采样技术

该文讨论了宽带数字接收机中对多个复或实的带通信号的直接均匀采样。对这多个通带位置及带宽均是任意的实或复的带通信号给出了采样率应满足的关系,用此采样率采样使输入数据得到有效的压缩,同时结合滤波器将频谱进行搬移,最后给出了实例。     

A novel method for down-conversion of multiple bandpass signals

Simultaneous down-conversion of multiple band-pass signals is desirable for a number of wireless applications. Bandpass sampling technique can be used for this purpose, but it is difficult to implement and has several drawbacks. In this paper we propose a novel front-end technique to directly down-convert multiple frequency- division multiplexed (FDM) signals separated by certain minimum frequency. A special downconversion function is derived to achieve simultaneous downconversion of the received signals. The technique requires simpler bandpass filters and the ADC has a baseband input as compared to bandpass sampling, which imposes strict requirements on bandpass filters and requires an ADC which can handle RF inputs. The performance of the method has been evaluated by simulating a BPSK receiver employing this technique.     

A Universal Formula for the Complete Bandpass Sampling Requirements of Nonlinear Systems

A nonlinear system driven by a bandpass input signal may produce an output signal that occupies multiple frequency bands. This makes bandpass sampling the output signal of the nonlinear system without causing aliasing a challenging task. Although the bandpass sampling theory for linear systems is well developed, its counterpart for nonlinear systems is relatively immature in the sense that complete bandpass sampling requirements have only been developed up to third-order nonlinear systems. In this paper, a novel method is used to derived the complete bandpass sampling requirements for nonlinear systems of an arbitrary order. The strategy used by this method is to build the constraints on the sampling frequency for n th-order nonlinear systems upon those for (n - 1)th-order nonlinear systems. This process makes the derivation easily extendable to nonlinear systems of any order. The derivation method also gives an insight into the mechanism for formularizing the constraints on the bandpass sampling frequency. As a result, a universal formula for the complete bandpass sampling requirements for nonlinear systems of any order is derived. This formula consolidates the bandpass sampling theory for nonlinear systems and facilitates the selection of the bandpass sampling frequency for nonlinear systems driven by bandpass input signals.