8/3/2016

IntroductiontoRF&WirelessCommunicationsSystemsNationalInstruments

IntroductiontoRF&WirelessCommunicationsSystems
PublishDate:Sep23,2015

Overview

ThistutorialispartoftheNationalInstrumentsMeasurementFundamentalsseries.Each
tutorialinthisseriesteachesyouaspecifictopicofcommonmeasurementapplicationsby
explainingthetheoryandgivingpracticalexamples.Thistutorialcoversanintroductionto
RF,wireless,andhighfrequencysignalsandsystems.
Forthecompletelistoftutorials,returntotheNIMeasurementFundamentalsMainpage
(http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4523),orformoreRFtutorials,refertotheNIRF
FundamentalsMainsubpage(http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3992).

TableofContents

1.MarconiandtheFirstWirelessTransmissions
2.WhatisRF?
3.WhyOperateatHigherFrequencies?
4.FrequencyShiftingthroughFrequencyMixing
5.LookingformoreRFBasics?
6.RelevantNIProducts
7.Conclusions
1.MarconiandtheFirstWirelessTransmissions

RadioFrequency(RF)andwirelesshavebeenaroundforoveracenturywithAlexander
PopovandSirOliverLodgelayingthegroundworkforGuglielmoMarconiswirelessradio
developmentsintheearly20thcentury.InDecember1901,Marconiperformedhismost
prominentexperiment,wherehesuccessfullytransmittedMorsecodefromCornwall,
England,toStJohns,Canada.
2.WhatisRF?

RFitselfhasbecomesynonymouswithwirelessandhighfrequencysignals,describing
anythingfromAMradiobetween535kHzand1605kHztocomputerlocalareanetworks
(LANs)at2.4GHz.However,RFhastraditionallydefinedfrequenciesfromafewkHzto
roughly1GHz.IfoneconsidersmicrowavefrequenciesasRF,thisrangeextendsto300
GHz.Thefollowingtwotablesoutlinethevariousnomenclaturesforthefrequencybands.
Thethirdtableoutlinessomeoftheapplicationsateachofthevariousfrequencybands.

Table1:FrequencyBandDesignations

Table1showsarelationshipbetweenfrequency(f)andwavelength().Awaveorsinusoid
canbecompletelydescribedbyeitheritsfrequencyoritswavelength.Theyareinversely
proportionaltoeachotherandrelatedtothespeedoflightthroughaparticularmedium.The
relationshipinavacuumisshowninthefollowingequation:
wherecisthespeedoflight.Asfrequencyincreases,wavelengthdecreases.Forreference,
a1GHzwavehasawavelengthofroughly1foot,anda100MHzwavehasawavelengthof
roughly10feet.

Table2:MicrowaveLetterBandDesignations
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Table3:FrequencyApplicationsandAllocationsintheU.S.

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IntroductiontoRF&WirelessCommunicationsSystemsNationalInstruments

RFmeasurementmethodologycangenerallybedividedintothree
majorcategories:spectralanalysis,vectoranalysis,andnetwork
analysis.Spectrumanalyzers,whichprovidebasicmeasurement
capabilities,arethemostpopulartypeofRFinstrumentinmany
generalpurposeapplications.Specifically,usingaspectrumanalyzeryoucanviewpower
vsfrequencyinformation,andcansometimesdemodulateanalogformats,suchas
amplitudemodulation(AM),frequencymodulation(FM),andphasemodulation(PM).
(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201564)Vector
instrumentsincludevectororrealtimesignalanalyzersand
generators.Theseinstrumentsanalyzeandgeneratebroadband
waveforms,andcapturetime,frequency,phase,andpower
informationfromsignalsofinterest.Theseinstrumentsaremuchmorepowerfulthan
spectrumanalyzersandofferexcellentmodulationcontrolandsignalanalysis.
Networkanalyzers,ontheotherhand,aretypicallyusedformakingSparameter
measurementsandothercharacterizationmeasurementsonRForhighfrequency
components.Networkanalyzersareinstrumentsthatcorrelateboththegenerationand
analysisonmultiplechannelsbutatamuchhigherpricethanspectrumanalyzersandvector
signalgenerators/analyzers.
3.WhyOperateatHigherFrequencies?

FromTable3wenoticethatthefrequencyspectrumisquitefragmentedanddense.This
encompassesoneofthereasonsthatweareconstantlypushingapplicationsintohigherand
higherfrequencies.However,someoftheotherreasonsaccountingforthispushintohigher
frequenciesincludeefficiencyinpropagation,immunitytosomeformsofnoiseand
impairmentsaswellasthesizeoftheantennarequired.Theantennasizeistypicallyrelated
tothewavelengthofthesignalandinpracticeisusuallywavelength.
Thisleadstoaveryinterestingquestion.Typically,dataisstructuredandeasilyrepresented
atlowfrequencieshowcanwerepresentitorphysicallytranslateittothesehigherRF
frequencies?Forexample,thehumanaudiblerangeisfrom20Hzto20kHz.Accordingto
theNyquisttheorem,wecancompletelyrepresentthehumanaudiblerangebysamplingat
40kHzor,moreprecisely,at44.1kHz(thisiswherestereoaudioissampled).Cellphones,
however,operateataround850MHz.Howdoesthishappen?
4.FrequencyShiftingthroughFrequencyMixing

(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/13712)Muchofthe
studyofRFandhighfrequencymeasurementsoccursinthe
frequencydomain.Thereisadualitybetweenthetimedomain
functionsandthosesamefunctionsrepresentedinthefrequency
domain.Figure1depictsfrequencyshiftingthehumanaudiblerangetotransmitthrough
cellularfrequencies.Themostcommonwaytofrequencyshiftiscalledmixing,whichis
equivalenttomultiplyingyoursignalbyasinusoidalsignal.Thefollowingmathematical
trigonometricidentitydemonstratesthisfact.

Therefore,bybeatingtwosinewavesagainsteachother,yougetboth
sumanddifferencefrequencies.Youcanshiftanentiresignaltoa
newfrequencyrange(eitherupordowninspectrum)byselectingthe
appropriatevalueof .Inaddition,anysignalcanberepresentedas
thesumofsinusoidalsignalsofdifferentfrequencies.Thus,shiftinga
signalsimplyappliesthemultiplicationtoallitssinusoidalcomponents.

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Figure1:FrequencyShiftingtheHumanAudibleRangetotheCellularRange
NOTE:Theprocessoftakingaudiblesoundandtransmittingovercellularfrequencies(850
MHz)includesmorethansimplymixing.Tomakethesignalmoreresistanttonoiseand
otherimpairments,theprocessincludesencodingandmodulatingthedataaswellas
perhapsusingmultiplestagesofmixinginsteadofasinglestage.
5.LookingformoreRFBasics?

EngineerswhoarenewtoRForlookingforaarefreshercoursecanattenda
3DayNationalInstrumentsRFFundamentalsTrainingCoursetoexplore
traditionalmeasurements,learnaboutdigitalandanalogmodulation,examine
modernsystemleveltestssuchasBER,MER,andEVM,andmore.
LearnMoreaboutthe3DayCourse>>
(http://sine.ni.com/tacs/app/overview/p/ap/of/id/1601/)

6.RelevantNIProducts

CustomersinterestedinthistopicwerealsointerestedinthefollowingNIproducts:
RFAcademy(http://www.ni.com/rfacademy/)
NIRF&CommunicationsPlatform(http://www.ni.com/rf)
NI56636.6GHzRFVectorSignalAnalyzer
(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/205592)
NI56736.6GHzRFVectorSignalGenerator
(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/205593)
NI56712.7GHzRFVectorSignalGenerator
(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201564)
NIRFSwitchHardware(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/12572)
NIModulationToolkitSoftware(http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/12855)

7.Conclusions

ThisdocumentismeanttoprovideabriefoverviewandintroductiontoRF,wireless,and
highfrequencysignals.AdditionalinformationcanbefoundinTeachingandResearch
ResourcesforRFandCommunications.(http://ni.com/academic/communication.htm)
Forthecompletelistoftutorials,returntotheNIMeasurementFundamentalsMainpage
(http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4523)orformoreRFtutorialsrefertotheNIRF
FundamentalsMainsubpage(http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3992).

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