Dynamically reconfigurable real-time hardware architecture for channel utilisation analysis in industrial wireless communication
Ludwig Karsthof, Mingjie Hao, Jochen Rust, Dimitri Block, Uwe Meier, Steffen Paul · 2016
Automation in industrial production is getting more important, so the need for high data rate, low latency and low power wireless communication is growing. This requires efficient use of bandwidth, in particular for unlicensed bands. In this paper, we present a hardware architecture for analysing the channel utilisation, which is needed in real-time coexistence management systems. Additionally, we compare the solution to a software implementation with respect to performance and real-time capability. The hardware implementation supports real-time channel utilisation sensing, calculating Fast-Fourier-Transform and logarithm. As shown in the results chapter, the hardware solution exceeds software approaches by more than five orders of magnitude in terms of throughput, calculating the Fast-Fourier-Transform and logarithm of a 1024 value wide vector in 17.26 μs at a clock frequency of 60 MHz. The FFT size can be dynamically reconfigured using control signals driven by software, which enables reuse e.g. in multi carrier systems such as GFDM, when coexistence management is not active.