19. Laboratory Work 6. The Complete SDR Chain (end to end)¶

Goal¶

Combine the elements of the course into one experiment: a digital signal is formed, passes through a channel, is received, synchronized and demodulated, and the result is judged by numbers.

1. The complete chain¶

TX → Channel → RX → Sync → Demod → Metrics

2. Diagram¶

flowchart TB
    classDef dsp fill:#DCFCE7,color:#0F172A,stroke:#16A34A;
    classDef rf fill:#FFE4E6,color:#0F172A,stroke:#E11D48;
    classDef metric fill:#F1F5F9,color:#0F172A,stroke:#64748B;

    TX["TX signal"]:::rf
    CH["Channel"]:::rf
    RX["Receiver"]:::rf
    SYNC["Synchronization"]:::dsp
    DEMOD["Demodulation"]:::dsp
    METRICS["Metrics"]:::metric

    TX --> CH --> RX --> SYNC --> DEMOD --> METRICS

3. Tasks¶

Form a signal (QPSK).
Pass it through the chain.
Receive the signal.
Synchronize.
Demodulate.
Evaluate BER and EVM.

4. Three levels of the same experiment¶

The course builds this chain three times, each time closer to the hardware:

Level	What the channel is	Where
model	software impairments: noise, CFO, timing offset	Lab 8.8, Lab 8.4
RTL	simulated datapath of the FPGA receiver	Lab 8.14 (OFDM), Project 12.1
hardware	the Zynq board, digital loopback or a radio link	Lab 11.27, Lab 11.28

Start at the model level; every level that follows reuses the same metrics, so the numbers stay comparable.

5. What the report should include¶

the signal parameters (modulation, symbol rate, samples per symbol);
the channel and its impairments;
the constellation after synchronization;
EVM and BER with the number of compared bits;
what limited the result.

6. Result¶

The student gets a complete picture of an SDR system and of the measurements that show whether it works.