MATLAB Digest - May 2004 - Fixed-Point Modeling in an Ultra Wideband (UWB) Wire...

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MATLAB Digest - May 2004

Fixed-Point Modeling in an Ultra Wideband (UWB) Wireless Communication System
by Martin Clark, Mike Mulligan, Dave Jackson, and Darel Linebarger Ultra wideband (UWB) wireless technology is poised to replace high-speed data cables in homes and offices (Stroh 2003). UWB technology will be capable of transmitting hundreds of megabits per second over distances of several meters. Target applications include connecting digital cameras to computers and DVD players to HDTV screens. Companies expect to ship commercial UWB products by the end of 2005. UWB range is fundamentally limited by low-power, high-speed transmission, and so there is little margin for implementation losses. However, the success of UWB in the marketplace also hinges on low-cost implementation. The difference of a few meters in range, or a few dollars in cost, could make or break UWB. Fixed-point engineering is critical in managing this all-important tradeoff between UWB range and cost. First, fixed-point word lengths strongly influence hardware size and cost. The silicon area of a multiply operation, for instance, is roughly proportional to the square of word length. Second, word lengths and scaling strongly influence the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradation of the communication link. Decreasing the SNR degradation by 1 dB can increase coverage by up to 25%. Unfortunately, fixed-point engineering is also very challenging and time-consuming, typically demanding 25%50% of the total design time. In this article, we explore fixed-point design using Simulink with a focus on a UWB technology proposal. We demonstrate techniques and offer tips for accelerating the design process.

Simulink Model Overview

We base our Simulink model on the multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (Heiskala and Terry, 2002) UWB proposal submitted to the IEEE 802.15.3a standards group in September 2003. Subsequent proposals have not changed the essential technology. The proposal supports seven data rates in the range 55480 Mb/s. The highest mandatory rate is 200 Mb/s. OFDM signals are transmitted using a frequency hopping (multiband) scheme. Our Simulink model captures the end-to-end physical layer (PHY) for the highest mandatory data rate and for the mandatory frequency hopping mode. Key Characteristics of Multiband OFDM PHY 200 Mb/s Mode RF transmission bandwidth Frequency hopping ("Mode 1 device") Error correction coding Code rate Modulation OFDM transmission Payload symbols per OFDM symbol Time spreading Multipath resistance from cyclic prefix 528 MHz 3 sub-bands (3.43, 3.96, 4.49 GHz centers) Convolutional with puncturing R=5/8 Quaternary Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) 128-point IFFT; zero-DC 100 2x (across frequency hops) 60 ns

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The multiband OFDM proposal is, in many ways, similar to the IEEE 802.11a/g WLAN PHY standards. Leveraging this similarity, we adapted our UWB model (see Figure 1) in just a few days, from an existing 802.11a model. Our adapted model also includes the UWB channel MATLAB code programmed by Intel and used by the IEEE 802.15.3a group.

Figure 1: Top level of Simulink model. Click on image to see enlarged view.

The transmitter and receiver each comprise three sections (Figure 1): binary data processing (blue) digital baseband processing (orange) baseband model of the analog front-end and channel (purple). We are interested primarily in the fixed-point design of the digital baseband section. You can think of the rest of the model as a test harness: it enables us to quickly assess the impact of the fixed-point design on end-to-end link performance.

OFDM Transmitter
The purpose of this subsystem (Figure 2) is to transform a payload of QPSK symbols into a large frame of OFDM symbols (165 samples each) to be passed along to the transmitters front-end.

Figure 2: OFDM transmitter. Click on image to see enlarged view.

The blue Convert block at the subsystem input converts the incoming signal into a fixed-point data type. In reality, this operation wouldn't exist; rather, the QPSK modulator would translate incoming bits directly into fixed-point data. The purple block at the subsystem output converts to double-precision floating point (for our purposes, you can think of it as a D/A converter). We highlight (orange) the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block and gain block because they perform fixed-point arithmetic. All other blocks (white) are simply fixed-point "data shufflers." The orange highlighting throughout the UWB model helps you quickly identify which blocks will be involved in the fixed-point design process.

OFDM Receiver
The OFDM receiver (Figure 3) involves more signal processingand, thus, more fixed-point arithmeticthan the transmitter. The receiver requires arithmetic in four sections: cyclic processing FFT channel estimation/compensation time despreading Cyclic processing and channel estimation/compensation are necessary to mitigate the effects of multipath channel dispersion.

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Figure 3: OFDM receiver. Click on image to see enlarged view.

Figure 4 shows our channel estimation/compensation subsystem. It implements a simple, low-cost phase-compensation scheme. (More sophisticated schemes exploit the channel's frequency coherence, and thus improve noise averaging [2].) It does not compensate for channel magnitude variations across the OFDM tone set because such schemes are computationally expensive and also unnecessary for QPSK. Our scheme avoids division with a complex divisor, and ensures that the magnitude of the division output has a small dynamic range.

Figure 4: Channel estimation and compensation. Click on image to see enlarged view.

Floating-Point Reference
Simulinks data-type override feature makes it straightforward to switch between fixed point and floating point for any subsystem or for the entire model. Our model also automatically runs a script that highlights (in green) arithmetic subsystems/blocks that use floating-point override. For our initial floating-point reference, we set the channel SNR to a high value (60 dB), which helps us isolate the impact of fixed-point effects on symbol distortion. Figure 5 shows two scopes from the UWB simulation: (a) the power spectrum of the baseband-equivalent received signal, over all three sub-bands, and (b) the signal constellation after channel phase estimation and compensation.

Figure 5: UWB simulation scopes. Click on image to see enlarged view.

The DC null in the power spectrum is from the OFDM transmission, but the rest of the spectrum approximately follows the frequency-selective fading characteristic of the multipath channel. The dynamic range over the OFDM tone set is about 30 dB, which is also evident in the magnitude-spread of the phase-compensated signal constellation. A clean "X" indicates almost perfect phase compensation.

Fixed-Point Design Methodology

The next phase is to set word lengths and scaling for every fixed-point arithmetic block in the system. Together, the word length and scaling constrain the dynamic range of a signal. If poorly engineered, they will introduce overflow or underflow, and degrade link performance. It makes sense, therefore, that one of the most useful things you can analyze in a fixedpoint design is the dynamic range of signals. We used the following methodology for the UWB fixed-point design: 1. Work through the system in the order of signal processing, enabling floating-point overrides for downstream subsystems. 2. For a given arithmetic (orange) subsystem or block:

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a. Enable floating-point override and analyze the output signals dynamic range b. Adjust word length and scaling to minimize overflow and underflow c. Disable floating-point override, re-examine dynamic range, and assess the impact on link performance This procedure is an iterative process, and the work flow can be tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, MATLAB and Simulink provide a number of tools to help accelerate the process. To analyze dynamic range, for instance, you can use one or more of the following: Fixed-point min/max logging Model Verification blocks Built-in scopes MATLAB analysis/visualization (via Signal To Workspace block or an M S-function) We demonstrate the last approach in the following section.

Example: Transmitter Design

For the UWB model, we built a block that automatically outputs a Simulink signal to a histogram, which is an invaluable way to visualize dynamic range. Figure 2 shows this block (labeled "Fixed-Point Analysis") attached to the transmitter gains output. Figure 6 shows the associated histogram for the floating-point reference (both in-phase and quadrature). The base-2 log scale is useful for visualizing dynamic range in terms of number of bits, i.e., word length.

Figure 6: Histogram of OFDM transmitter output; floating-point reference. Click on image to see enlarged view.

Excluding zero-valued samples (which are mapped to 2-15 in the plot), the signal magnitude lies in the range 2-13 to 22 for more than 99.9% of the time, and so the signal can be represented adequately with 16 bits (signed). This large dynamic range90 dBis typical in OFDM, and is essentially the result of passing a random signal through an IFFT. The analysis block also automatically estimates that 2-14 might be a reasonable scale factor to minimize overflow and underflow. The Fixed-Point settings dialog provides a similar estimation capability, and can even automatically set fixedpoint scaling for user-selected blocks. Based on this analysis, we initially set the word length to 16 bits and the scaling factor to 2-14 for all arithmetic blocks (orange) in the transmitter. We do this by explicitly setting the fixed-point parameters of the input gateway block and selecting "Same as input" for the fixed-point parameters of all other arithmetic blocks in the transmitter (Figure 7). We maintain floating-point overrides in the receiver subsystem to isolate and diagnose potential problems in the transmitter design.

Figure 7: Dialogs for (a) Gateway block at transmitter input and (b) Gain block. Click on image to see enlarged view.

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Figure 8 shows the resulting histogram and phase-compensated signal constellation. Notice that the constellation is somewhat distorted compared with our floating-point reference (Figure 5). The histogram reveals that the highest values are saturated to a value of 2. (The dashed lines in the histogram represent the floating-point reference.) While these highpower transmitted values occur only about 1% of the time, this is enough to causewith high probabilitysignificant distortion at the output of the 128-point receiver FFT.

Figure 8: Results for 2-14 scaling. Click on image to see enlarged view.

We need to increase the scaling by one or two bits. Such an increase will cause underflow for the small values at the gains output, but the effect should be minimal because transmitted signal values smaller than 2-10 will be buried in the channel noise. Figure 9 shows the improvement with 2-12 scaling.

Figure 9: Improved results for 2-12 scaling. Click on image to see enlarged view.

Favoring the high end of a signal's range is not always the right strategy. Small signal values sometimes play a significant role, for instance, in channel estimation and compensation algorithms. The point is that setting fixed-point scaling requires some finesse, particularly when it comes to engineering for smaller word lengths. Auto-computation tools provide coarse estimates. However, fine tuning often calls for a combination of visualization and insight. The above example covers the basics of setting word lengths and scaling factors. The next steps involve analyzing output signal dynamic ranges of individual blocks in the transmitter, tuning each block's fixed-point settings, and moving through the receiver using the same design techniques.

Smaller Word Lengths

Beginning with 16 bits throughout the system lets you approach design issues incrementally and then apply what you learn to smaller word lengths. For instance, when you care more about overflow than about underflow, as is often the case, the desired integer length tends to be similar for different word lengths. Using the tools and methodology discussed here, we were able to get a 10-bit design working at a bit error rate of 0.1%, with only a 0.5 dB SNR degradation compared with the floating-point reference. Figure 10 illustrates how you can capture multiple fixed-point designs in a single model. The workspace variable uwb.OFDMDataType stores the word length. The fpscaling function selects fixed-point scaling (or fraction length) based on the word length. For 16 bits, it uses a fraction length of 14; for 12 bits, a fraction length of 11; and so on.

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Figure 10: Capturing multiple fixed-point designs in a single model. Click on image to see enlarged view.

Using variables and selector functions in this way, you can quickly switch between different fixed-point designs. You can also write simple MATLAB scripts to run simulations over a range of word lengths and channel conditions to explore tradeoffs between chip size (or power consumption) and wireless range.

References
S. Stroh, "Ultra-wideband: multimedia unplugged," IEEE Spectrum, October 2003. J. Heiskala and J. Terry, "OFDM wireless LANs: a theoretical and practical guide," SAMS, 2002. Fixed-Point Modeling Using Simulink and the Signal Processing Blockset (UWB). Download this 57 minute recorded webinar to see a demonstration of examples discussed in this article.

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