Flexible Multi-Standard Digital Front End for LPWA Technologies

Abstract

This article proposes a flexible multistandard digital front-end (DFE) hardware architecture designed for three main low-power wide-area technologies: LoRa, Sigfox, and narrowband Internet of Things. We demonstrate the feasibility of a unified DFE architecture that fits the requirements of these technologies. The proposed DFE architecture has been implemented on a Spartan-6 field-programmable gate array within a base station receiver and tested using a platform based on universal software radio peripherals. We show that the expected performance can be achieved with low hardware complexity in terms of memory and logic requirements.