4G terminals: how are we going to design them?

Abstract

Fourth-generation wireless communication systems (4G) will have totally different requirements than what front-end designers have been coping with up to now. Designs must be targeted to multi-mode and reconfigurability, leading to the concept of a "software-defined radio". A large part of such a radio will be integrated into a complex SoC, where the substrate noise coupling problem must be solved.However, for an optimal implementation of the complete system, including e.g. PA, RF filters and antenna, different technologies must be combined in a single package, merging the worlds of microwave 's-parameter' designers and IC 'spice' designers. Design and simulation environments efficiently combining the assets of both are needed.At the same time, optimized mixed-signal radio architectures including digital compensation techniques that overcome the limitations and inaccuracies of the analog front-end must be developed. Again, efficiently designing and simulating such mixed analog/digital architectures requires an optimized tool capable of combining RF simulation techniques with digital system model simulation.

Energy-Aware Interoperability of Manet and 4g Ran Routing

“…This is where ad hoc networks and terminal routing could provide an option. Mobile 4G/MANET terminals capable of delivering the required service could be economically feasible to manufacture by 2012 [6]. The obstacles described in the 4G concepts will not be overcome using traditional approaches or scaling up the existing 3G.…”

Baseband Analog Circuits for Software Defined Radio

“…In the last few years, several attempts have been made in the SDR direction based on different architectures (Bagheri et al, 2006;Muhammad et al, 2006;Karvonen et al, 2006;Liscidini et al, 2006). The main target for a SDR front end is to reduce the radio cost by a factor of 2 by sharing hardware (Craninckx and Donnay, 2003). A first estimate shows that the cost for a radio front end that supports several standard by duplicating the hardware will be prohibitive and will be a roadblock for introduction of the 4G terminal in the broader market.…”

An HDL-Based System Design Methodology for Multistandard RF SoC's

“…Pushing the limits of Moore's law [1], more complex solutions have been developed on single system-on-chip (SoC) offering advanced analog and digital circuitry. Flexible architectures and multistandard SoC's are results of the extensive digital controlled analog circuitry used in state-of-the-art SoC's [2], [3].…”