Edward Brown


Reconfigurable Cores for Wireless Appliances: Turbo Codes

Xilinx (2000-04)
Research Engineer: Edward Brown
Sponsor: Xilinx
Academic Supervision: Dr James Irvine, University of Strathclyde

The thesis introduces the subject of Turbo codes, highlighting the motivation behind their inclusion in international standards. Particular attention is given to the cdma2000 and UMTS third generation mobile telephony standards. Both the technical and commercial advantages/disadvantages of implementing Turbo codes in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based system are discussed. The subject of third generation mobile technology is also discussed, this includes an introduction to spread spectrum and rake receivers.

The commercial relevance of all projects conducted is discussed. These projects allowed the sponsoring company to highlight the advantages of using FPGAs in third generation mobile base stations.

A novel system for testing forward error correction (FEC) codes is presented. Results obtained are showed and discussed. A novel parameterisable Turbo decoder will also be highlighted. The decoder in question allows the user to specify certain criteria that can be used to control the memory used by the decoder and its latency. A novel hardware architecture for Turbo decoders is proposed, as is a unique channel variance value that optimises a cdma2000 Turbo decoder. Other subjects covered are Duo-Binary Turbo codes, Turbo decoder hardware architectures and how to calculate the input values to Turbo decoders.

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