Low cost implementation of software defined radio for improved transmit quality of 4G signals

This paper presents the development and implementation of digital pre-distortion algorithm for a low cost FPGA based platform. The targeted setup is implemented using AD9361 and FPGA based processing boards Xilinx Zynq 7000 to provide wideband, high performance, highly integrated RF transceiver, which is well suited for wireless communications infrastructure, defense electronics systems, RF test equipment, instrumentation and general software-defined radio platforms. The FPGA based setup is reconfigurable as (1 × 1) SISO or (2 × 2) MIMO transmitters. For transmitter branch, digital predistortion has been implemented and results are reported for ZX60-2522M power amplifier from Mini-Circuits and 4G LTE signal implementation having input power of 10dBm and operating range of 0.5 to 2.5 GHz. The platform provides a flexible wireless research tool with the implementation of SDR solutions.