Hardware-in-the-Loop Validation of SDR-Based Reconfigurable Transceivers for Tactical Wireless Communication Systems

Abstract

The hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation framework proposed in this paper is aimed at the validation of software-defined radio (SDR)-based reconfigurable transceivers which are designed as part of wireless communication systems to operate as tactical applications. Such systems require strong and flexible operations in fast evolving, spectrum-congested and interference-prone scenarios. The proposed architecture integrates the ability to model the signals using MCRD and the SDR hardware resources in a co-simulation environment that enables closed-loop operation (across a large number of tactical scenarios). The important characteristics of the transceiver are adaption modulation schemes, and real-time channel equalizations, dynamic spectrum access, and FPGA acceleration of the baseband processing. The USRP B210 is employed to perform physical-layer transmission and reception in the HIL platform, and channel emulation modules are used that simulate urban multipath fading, Doppler shifts and jamming. As it is experimentally proven, bit error rate (BER) decreases dramatically under hostile RF circumstances under the adaptive modulation scheme up to 65 percent BER improvement and frequency hopping scheme up to 42 percent improved spectral efficiency. The model also attains sub-5 ms reconfiguration latency, which qualifies it as appropriate for time-bound functions. The findings affirm that the HIL approach can be used in benchmarking the undeniably live performance of SDR-based transceivers before they are released to the field. The suggested framework is both scalable and expandable where missions-critical RFsystems at different frequency bands and network topologies have been assessed. The future development designs will introduce cognitive adaptation by use of AI and multi-node tactical mesh networking abilities.