San Francisco, CA. MathWorks at IMS 2016 highlighted its approach to next-generation wireless design with new capabilities added to MATLAB.
At the show and in a preshow briefing, Ken Karnofsky, senior strategist, signal processing, outlined some of the challenges and MathWorks’ approach to meeting them.
Innovation drivers, he said, include ultrahigh throughput, massive connectivity for IoT, and device integration—all of which must be achieved in the face of accelerating product cycles. One result is a change in the need for particular engineering roles and skills.
Next-generation wireless designs, Karnofsky said, require at least seven different skills in the areas of system architecture design, DSP algorithm exploration, software development, digital-hardware design, mixed-signal design, RF design, and antenna design. MATLAB and Simulink, he said, span these areas from system architecture investigations through prototyping and product implementation.
MATLAB and Simulink, he said, support rapid and flexible algorithm exploration, design, and analysis while enabling unified simulation of digital, RF, and antenna elements. MathWorks tools support HDL and C code generation for FPGAs, processors, and ASICs. They also support multivendor hardware and software environments for verification and prototyping.
Karnofsky commented on digital PHY design, from algorithm exploration and simulation through hardware verification using instruments from companies such as Anritsu, Keysight Technologies, and Rohde & Schwarz. He also commented on RF/digital co-design—from the creation of an RF budget, models, and test benches through the integration of RF and digital PHY components.
Karnofsky concluded with a discussion of the road to 5G, about which we will have more in our upcoming July report on the topic.
