A design methodology for highly-integrated wireless communications systems

A complete system design methodology for next-generation wireless systems must encompass 3 radically different design domains: (1) mixed-signal and analog, (2) baseband communications and signal processing, and (3) embedded protocol controllers. Further, this design methodology must facilitate the flow from a high-level specification into an implementation. A skeleton design flow that makes use of existing point tools is presented, and areas for improvement are highlighted.