Software Defined Communications Platform

Today's applications focus on connecting multiple devices which communicate using radio waves. The SDR (Soft-ware Defined Radio) is designed to offer a flexible platform which meets today's applications requirements in various fields such as medical monitoring, agriculture processes or public safety. In SDR the physical components are virtualized using software algorithms and concepts. This offers the advantage of using the same hardware equipment for multiple purposes as well as reuse software defined components throughout the project development process. SDR integrates configurable RF (Radio Frequency) devices with the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) platform enabling them to work together and perform digital operations. The suitable software tools for a top-down approach on SDR are Matlab and Simulink which offers a variety of dedicated libraries for radio communications. This paper describes a system dedicated for transmitting and receiving FM (Frequency Modulation) radio communications using the Zedboard re-configurable platform and the Analog Devices AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ (AD9361) communication module.