Tutorial T8A: Realization of RF Front-End for a Cognitive Radio

Abstract

The Cognitive Radio (CR) technology is a major step forward to address the critical challenge of "spectrum scarcity" in Wireless communications. It is a methodology to develop effective communication systems with the available radio resources and their constraints. This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview on realization of RF Front-End (RF FE) for a Cognitive Radio (CR). It begins with a discussion on the Software Defined Radio (SDR) and significance of the CR methodology, for different applications of wireless technology. Next, a brief view of system architecture for the CR is discussed. Subsequent section highlights: the architecture, detailed design along with associated mathematical analysis and the key challenges in realizing the RF FE design. Finally, the tutorial discusses the results from the realization of a RF FE. The last session concludes the tutorial, followed by a discussion. Speaker BiographiesB. Ravi Kishore is Deputy General Manager at HCL Technologies Ltd., Chennai. He had completed his Ph.D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo in the area of fault-tolerant computing and design for testability for asynchronous circuits, in March, 1998. He had worked with Texas Instruments (Japan) from 1998 to 2002 in design automation group for analog and mixed-signal design. He worked in the area of power analysis, design for manufacturability of mixed-signal circuits. Since 2003, he has been working with HCL Technologies, Chennai, India. From 2003 to 2006, he was responsible for the defining and implementing the system level reliability process for various high-integrity applications in medical, avionics and networking. He successfully initiated several large customer engagements in the areas of wireless infrastructure, consumer electronics, defense & security and headed the product development teams to build end-to-end solutions. Currently, he heads the Centre of Excellence (CoE) team for RF Systems Engineering since 2009. As a part of CoE activities, the team is responsible for new technology initiatives and developing wireless solutions for RF Systems Engineering, in the application areas of wireless infrastructure, consumer electronics, medical electronics, defense & security, industrial electronics etc. B Kameswara Rao is Senior Project Manager at HCL Technologies Limited, Chennai, India. He handles RF/wireless Projects and is responsible for design and delivery of RF and Microwave products / systems.