Implementation of Wireless Communications Systems on FPGA-Based Platforms

Wireless communications are a very popular application domain. The efficient implementation of their components (access points and mobile terminals/network interface cards) in terms of hardware cost and design time is of great importance. This paper describes the design and implementation of the HIPERLAN/2 WLAN system on a platform including general purpose microprocessors and FPGAs. Detailed implementation results (performance, code size, and FPGA resources utilization) are presented. The main goal of the design case presented is to provide insight into the design aspects of a complex system based on FPGAs. The results prove that an implementation based on microprocessors and FPGAs is adequate for the access point part of the system where the expected volumes are rather small. At the same time, such an implementation serves as a prototyping of an integrated implementation (System-on-Chip), which is necessary for the mobile terminals of a HIPERLAN/2 system. Finally, firmware upgrades were developed allowing the implementation of an outdoor wireless communication system on the same platform. Copyright (C) 2007 K. Masselos and N. S. Voros.