Reducing Processing Latency with a Heterogeneous FPGA-Processor Framework

Abstract

Abstract-Both Xilinx and Altera have released SoCs that tightly couple programmable logic with a dual core Cortex A9 ARM processor. These SoCs show promise in accelerating applications that exploit both the FPGA's parallel processing architecture and the CPU's sequential processing. For example, before accessing a wireless channel, a cognitive radio does spectrum sensing to detect channel occupancy and then makes a decision based on spectrum policies. Spectrum sensing maps well to FPGA fabric, while spectrum decision can be implemented with a CPU. Both algorithms are highly sensitive to latency as a faster decision improves spectrum utilization. This paper introduces CRASH: Cognitive Radio Accelerated with Software and Hardware -a new software and programmable logic framework for Xilinx's Zynq SoC targeting cognitive radio. We implement spectrum sensing and the spectrum decision in three configurations: both algorithms in the FPGA, both in software only, and spectrum sensing on the FPGA and spectrum decision on the CPU. We measure the end-to-end latency to detect and acquire unoccupied spectrum for these configurations. Results show that CRASH can successfully partition algorithms between FPGA and CPU and reduce processing latency.

Spectral Coexistence of LDACS and DME: Analysis via Hardware Software Co-Design in Presence of Real Channels and RF Impairments

“…One such platform is ZSoC consisting of ARM and FPGA on a single chip and it is being envisioned for various wireless communication applications [16][17][18] as well as autonomous driving, medical applications. For example, a Cognitive Radio Accelerated with Software and Hardware (CRASH) is introduced in [19] and authors analyzed three possible configurations of spectrum sensing and decision making blocks: 1) Both blocks on the FPGA, 2) Both blocks on the processor and 3) Spectrum sensing on the FPGA and decision making on processor. Their experiments show that the third approach offers superior performance over the others.…”

New Reconfigurable L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communication System

“…Their experiments confirmed the superiority of the platform for evolvable hardware design in context of area overhead, execution time, reconfiguration time and throughput. A Cognitive Radio Accelerated with Software and Hardware (CRASH) is introduce in [32]. CRASH is a versatile heterogeneous computing framework for the Xilinx Zynq SoC.…”