Rapid Prototyping and Validation of FS-FBMC Dynamic Spectrum Radio With Simulink and ZynqSDR

This article presents the research carried out in developing and targeting a novel real-time Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) Frequency Spread Filter Bank Multicarrier (FS-FBMC) transmitter prototype to programmable ‘ZynqSDR’ Software Defined Radio (SDR) hardware, and introduces a series of experiments used to validate the design’s ‘cognitive’ DSA capabilities. This transmitter is a proof of concept, that uses DSA techniques to enable Secondary Users (SUs) to access the band traditionally used for FM Radio broadcasting (88-108 MHz), and establish data communication channels in vacant parts of the FM Radio Primary User (PU) spectrum using a multicarrier modulation scheme with a Non Contiguous (NC) channel mask. Once implemented on the hardware, the transmitter is subjected to various FM Radio environments sampled from around Central Scotland, and it is demonstrated that it can dynamically adapt its NC transmitter mask in real time to protect the FM Radio signals it detects. A video is presented of this dynamic on-hardware spectral reconfiguration, and the reader is encouraged to view the video to appreciate the responsiveness of the design. An investigation into potential FBMC guardband sizes is carried out, with initial findings indicating a guardband of 200 kHz (either side of an FM Radio station) is required in order to prevent interference with the PUs. This article also demonstrates the capabilities of the MATLAB and Simulink Model Based Design Zynq-Based Radio workflow, and provides a case study and reference design that we feel other researchers working in this field can benefit from.