Real-time Signal Processing with FPGAs and GPUs for Wideband Interference-resilient Communications

For wideband phased array beamforming, multiport high throughput data acquisition and real time processing systems are required. This paper provides an overview of the development of a phased array receiver system for naval communications. This broadband heterogeneous system enables communication in hostile radio frequency interference (RFI)-rich environments with the aid of a real-time RFI mitigation algorithm currently implemented on graphics processing units (GPUs). The algorithm will be compatible with other phased array and phased array feed (PAF) receiver systems and will enable RFI mitigation in other applications such as radio astronomy. The system will be capable of receiving data from multiple transmitters and employs FPGAs and HPCs with integrated GPUs and FPGAs to process 150 MHz instantaneous bandwidth. This is the first system that we are aware of to demonstrate wideband, real-time RFI cancellation with a heterogeneous, distributed DSP architecture.