Integrating system level design and instrumentation for communications development

A challenge for communication system designers is to integrate many hardware subsystems. After a system has been modeled in software it has to be transferred to a hardware prototype. Linking electronic design automation (EDA) tools with measurement equipment decreases the time needed to evaluate and troubleshoot the system. This is accomplished by allowing subsystems to be tested as if they were part of the entire system even before the entire system is transferred to a hardware prototype. In this paper we describe this software/hardware link between the EDA tools and measurement equipment using the HP W-CDMA design library, HP 89441 A vector signal analyzer and HP ESG-D RF digital signal generator. In doing this we are also able to describe this solution's application as a flexible waveform generator. A wide variety of signals can be simulated using the HP Advanced Design System (ADS) and the HP W-CDMA design library, with this software/hardware link these signals can now be turned into real world signals generated by the HP ESG-D RF digital signal generator. This includes baseband signals, RF signals, and also signals with channel impairments such as, fading, phase noise, IQ gain imbalance, and amplifier non-linearities.