Microwave

Engineering
Project
Dayton 2009 SDR Forum
What is MEP?

How is it to be used?

Why should the average

ham operator care?
 Mission
  To produce a high-speed digital microwave
communications system for amateur radio.

Design Balance

Cost
Schedule
Quality
 Like Any Project
  We have to balance cost, schedule, and quality.

  Unlike many other engineering projects, we are not a

corporate or commercial project. We’re an open source
volunteer engineering project. How many people have
heard of, worked on, finished an open source project?

  Due to the nature of the mission, this requires that the

work be done by teams of people working together.
 Exploratory Results
  The system should transmit and receive high-speed
digital data over a full-duplex microwave link.

  The frequencies of operation are 5.6GHz and 3.4GHz.

  The bandwidth should be at least 10MHz.

  The system should cost less than $1000 to purchase.

  The system should transmit high-definition video

signals.
 Exploratory Results
  The system should be capable of point-to-point
communication between any two stations in range of
each other.
  The system should be capable of multiple access
communications between stations.
  The system should allow stations to discover each other
and advertise their current and potential
configurations and services.
  The system operates as a fully functional IP network.
 Exploratory Results
  The system is intended to be useful, with modifications, in
the amateur satellite service as a digital ground station.
  The system should be able to simulate a satellite
environment.
  The system should be partitioned in a way that reduces
requirements for custom hardware.
  The system should be able to handle an Ethernet 10/100
link as either a control link and/or as a data link.
  The system should be able to handle a wide variety of types
of data without modification.
Requirements
Requirements are necessary attributes that are defined for
an item or system prior to the design effort.
Requirements are derived from the mission and are the
foundation of the implementation.

Requirements Analysis
Requirements Analysis is an organized method for
identifying the appropriate set of resources and
requirements that satisfies the mission statement of the
project.
 • Requirements Analysis helps turn this, a
So, software development station, into

• Which can be distributed, debated,

This, implemented, or ignored, to create

• A repeatable and verifiable development

This environment for cooperative work,

• Impresses all your family and friends.

Which
 High Definition Video
  Transmission of high-definition video is a project
requirement because it’s compelling and hasn’t been
widely pursued in amateur radio.
  H.264 and Ogg Theora have been proposed as
supported video standards. MEP, through the
engineering partnership Optimized Tomfoolery, is an
MPEGLA licensee.

  High-definition webcams were designated as the best

signal source for high-definition video because they
provide digital data out in a useful format.
Modern Radios
Massively integrated digital systems that take large teams (ugh,
management), advanced techniques (oh no NOT book learnin’!), and
large amounts of money (Gah!) to bring to completion.

Is modern radio design out of reach of ham radio?

 Things worth doing…
  What’s important to appreciate in modern radio projects,
similar to the one pictured above?

  Advanced or complex techniques

  Expensive or specialized components

  Commercial projects employ Division of Labor – “is the

specialization of cooperative labour in specific,
circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the
productivity of labour. Historically the growth of a more and
more complex division of labour is closely associated with
the growth of total output…” -shortcutopedia (wikipedia
Division of Labor entry as of 5 May 2009)
 …are rarely easy
  Modern radio design is within the grasp of ham radio. It
requires people to work together in large teams and “divide”
the labor, however, and doing that in the absence of large
sums of cash is key.
  What do you expect? People to work for free? No, we expect
people to work on what they’re interested in. This is
distribution and not division of labor and is a hallmark
aspect of open source projects.
  Open source experience and motivation is essentially
altruism that acknowledges ambition. Status can be
obtained through many paths. Respect the ego. Give credit
where credit is due.
 No, It Is Not Out Of Reach
  The modern communications experience requires a re-
evaluation of what constitutes amateur
communications (consumer perspective).
  Ham radio enthusiasts are interested in different things
than they were in the past (ham perspective).
  The next step in ham radio design incorporates
microprocessors and software as a matter of course, not
as a centerpiece, and not as a pinnacle of victory, but as
a tool or enabling technology, in the course of
completing a design.
Common Conception
All amateur radio projects will eventually be
implemented entirely in software.
 HF SDR Archetype
  Leverages commodity components.
  Low-cost software runs on general
purpose processors.
  Provides value to the HF experience.
  Not as easy to duplicate in the
microwave bands.
 Transverter vs. SDR
  Transverters are a well-understood and rational technique for getting
baseband to RF. Transverters of every size and shape and level of
performance have been pressed into service for wireless
communications for the past 45 years. We don’t hate transverters.
However, our goal is to implement MEP using SDR. Why?

  From the MUD 2000 article Future Designs of Microwave

Transverters by Steve Kostro N2CEI “With the increasing use of
the general publics communication systems such as Cellular, PCS,
WLAN, Blue Tooth, and the future use of the ISM bands, amateur
band microwave transverters that were designed 5 years ago will
soon, if not already, become inadequate. Caused by the increased
RF density surrounding and sharing our amateur bands, transverter
designs that provided weak signal sensitivity without strong signal
immunity or selectivity will soon be of little use to the Microwave
enthusiast.”
Transverter SDR

Cost Flexibility

Simplicity Bandwidth
 Cost
  Comparing the cost between a transverter and an SDR is not
necessarily straightforward. How much of the radio should or can be
converted to an SDR? Baseband? Baseband + IF? The entire chain?
How about the transmit chain as an SDR and the receive side done
with a transverter? Transverters range from relatively cheap ($100
SBMS board) to relatively expensive ($450 for DB6NT or DEMI
boards). An SDR requires a processor ($50 in 1000 quantity Atom
330, $30 in quantity TI OMAP) and we believe we’ll require an FPGA
to do the heavy lifting of the signal processing. Why? Microprocessors
are not fast enough. FPGAs have superior performance. FPGAs range
in price all over the map. For small quanitites, a transverter might
actually be cheaper. However, if the cost of processors and FPGAs
drops faster than the cost of the components of a typical transverter,
then there is a technical obligation to develop them for amateur radio
use.
Transverters SDR
Hardware Less Hardware?

Processor Processor

Software Software

FPGA
 Simplicity
  Unlike a typical HF SDR, MEP’s SDR implementation
may (initially) require more types of components, not
fewer. What you get in exchange for increased
complexity is flexibility and performance, as well as a
working amateur design that others can use and learn
from.
 Flexibility
  How much flexibility is truly required in amateur
radio? Are we allowed to use all these fancy
modulations schemes?
  Being able to experiment with different modulations,
encodings, and protocols is easier with an SDR.
Reconfiguring the radio is possible with an SDR.
Experimenting with interesting techniques such as
genetic algorithms for so-called Cognitive Radio is
possible with an SDR.
 Bandwidth
  Bandwidth vs. processor speed is the primary trade-off
for an SDR. 10MHz bandwidth means a required
sampling rate of at the very (impossible) least 20MHz.
Since we are going to be using actual real filters, a
sampling rate of 40MHz is more likely required (at IF).

  Real filters at RF will be even wider, so higher sampling

rates may be required if we sample at microwave
frequencies.
 Repercussions of
Reconfigurability
  Reconfigurability requires that we pay attention to the
behavior of the entire system rather than just focusing
on the chips and circuits that perform the physical-layer
processing.

  There are static and dynamic reconfigurability

strategies. Commercial cellular contrasts with
government radio in terms of which strategy is
employed.
 Cellular vs. Military
  Commercial cellular systems handle heavy traffic
volume in a defined frequency range.

  Commercial cellular supports one or two air-interface

modes.

  Military radio involves a wide range of frequencies,

many modulations, software, and rapidly changing
interference challenges.

  Cellular = static, military = dynamic

 Enter uWSDR
  If we’re not going to be using transverters, then what
are we going to be using? New SDRs using direct
conversion from microwaves to baseband.
  Coordinated by Grant Hodgson, the Microwave SDR
group aims to deliver… (under construction!)
 Grant says…
  “Detailed system simulations show that the receiver
architecture planned for the uWSDR receivers should
give levels IMD rejection that are far greater than those
from any currently available amateur microwave
transverter+ IF rig combination.”

  “The 2.3GHz uWSDR receiver design has got as far as

schematic capture, which is now done. As soon as the
GeMMA Tx is sorted work can start on the rest of the
layout for the full transceiver.” Schedule for this is
indeterminate.
 Grant says…
  “The uWSDR project is aimed (at least initially) at
producing equipment for narrowband use. However,
the key components (PLL, Tx modulator, Rx
demodulator) are suitable for very wide IF bandwidths
indeed (hundreds of MHz), and therefore the RF
hardware should require just a minimal amount of
changes in order to be able to carry the bandwidths
required for MEP. I don't see these changes as a major
problem.”
 Development Stations
  Intel ATOM 330 processor “Atom Smash” represents
the top-down approach. Intel will reign supreme!

  TI OMAP processor “Dog Pack” represents the bottom-

up approach. Intel must be stopped!
 Opportunities
  Discovery software application

  Outdoor RF enclosure

  Custom dual-band feed

  Duplicating the development environment allows

anyone to program, test, or follow along.
 Opportunities
  Signal processing

  Air interface definition

  Encoding, modulation

  Media access control protocols

Microwave Engineering Project
contributors, supporters, and participants
Kerry Banke N6IZW, Art Botterell KD6O, Kent Britain WA5VJB,
Phil Karn KA9Q, Grayg Ralphsnyder KC8SVT, James W8ISS,
Michelle Thompson W5NYV, Roger Thompson AD5T, Paul Wade
W1GHZ, Paul Williamson KB5MU, Eric Fort AF6EP, Timothy Salo
AB0DO

Thank you – your involvement makes it happen.