ZTE Communications ›› 2011, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (4): 10-14.

• Special Topic • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Design of Software-Defined Down-Conversion and Up-Conversion: An Overview

Yue Zhang1, Li-Ke Huang2, Carsten Maple1, and Qing Xuan3   

  1. 1. Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire, UK;
    2. Aeroflex International Ltd, Stevenage, UK;
    3. Sino-European-Link Ltd, UK
  • Online:2011-12-25 Published:2011-12-25
  • About author:Yue Zhang (yue_zhang@ieee.org) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire. He received his B.Eng. and M. Eng. degrees in 2001 and 2004 from Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. degree from Brunel University — where he also worked as a research engineer for the EU IST FP6 project, PLUTO. He was responsible for transmitter and receiver diversity design and measurement for DVB-T/H systems as well as RF/Digital/DSP design for on-channel repeaters. After 2008, Dr. Zhang worked as a signal processing design engineer in Anritsu. He was responsible for RF/IF, digital and DSP design for wireless communication systems.

    Li-Ke Huang (like.huang@gmail.com) is a technical expert and algorithms group leader at Aeroflex UK. He develops test and measurement technologies for wireless system engineering and specializes in transceiver algorithm and architecture designs for the main wireless standards. He is responsible for new product features and new technology developments. He received his B.Sc. degree in electronic engineering from Shenzhen University in 1998 and his Ph.D. degree in communication and signal processing from Imperial College London in 2002.

    Carsten Maple (carsten.maple@beds.ac.uk) is pro-vice-chancellor of research and enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire. He received his B.Sc. degree in mathematics and his Ph.D. degree in numerical analysis from the University of Leicester. He is a member of the IEEE, and a fellow of the FBCS and CITP. He heads the Center for Research in Distributed Technologies (CREDIT) at the University of Bedfordshire, which has 40 staff and Ph.D. researchers. His research interests include information security, trust and authentication in distributed systems, graph theory, and optimization techniques. He has led a number of research projects in these areas with funding totaling of more than-million from UK EPSRC, EU, and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). He has been editor or guest editor for several international journals. He has been chairman and session chairman for a number of international conferences. He has also been invited to present keynote speeches to various international conferences. Dr. Maple has published over 70 papers internationally and has been invited to talk on security, robotics, and applied computing on UK radio and television.

    Qing Xuan (jasx@talk2-1.com) received her Ph.D. degree in power and energy from the University of Bath in 1995. She has more than 20 years’experience in the telecom, energy, finance, and aviation sectors. Since March 2009, she has co-founded two companies. From January 2005 to March 2009 she was a business strategy director for Huawei Technologies. Her responsibilities included working with the minister and regulator to develop markets and introduce investor partners to clients. She also provided supply chain consultancy services to secured-business clients, including M&A Technology Company. From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Qing Xuan was a commercial and technical architect at Vodafone Group. From 1998 to 2000, she was as design engineer for Panasonic. From 1995 to 1998, she was post-doctoral researcher in the Power Group at the University of Bath. From 1987 to 1991, she was deputy director of the Telecom Department at the Ministry of Power and Water, China.

Abstract: In recent years, much attention has been paid to software-defined radio (SDR) technologies for multimode wireless systems. SDR can be defined as a radio communication system that uses software to modulate and demodulate radio signals. This article describes concepts, theory, and design principles for SDR down-conversion and up-conversion. Design issues in SDR down-conversion are discussed, and two different architectures, super-heterodyne and direct-conversion, are proposed. Design issues in SDR up-conversion are also discussed, and trade-offs in the design of filters, mixers, NCO, DAC, and signal processing are highlighted.

Key words: SDR down-conversion, up-conversion, direct-conversion, super-heterodyne conversion