Wireless Communication & Signal Processing Research Lab
About the Lab:
The Signal Processing and Communications Research Laboratory has been established at PMU to support teaching and research in collaboration with National Instruments (NI). This lab houses state-of-the-art hardware from NI supporting a wide range of topics in communications such as analog communication, digital communication, and wireless and RF communication. The purpose of this laboratory is to perform hardware implementation and experimental validation of communications and signal processing algorithms related to ongoing research activities in topics such as Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation, array signal processing, smart antennas, and data acquisition.
Objectives of this Lab:
- Develop new Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms for real-time implementation.
- Investigate and experimentally validate computationally fast and highly accurate DOA estimation algorithms for real-time operation.
- Conduct research in related areas such as beamforming for Massive Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) System for 5G applications and Bistatic MIMO radar system
- Hardware implementation for beamforming for Massive Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) System for 5G applications and Bistatic MIMO radar system, leading to the potential development of products.
- Come up with new product ideas in the areas of communication systems and array signal processing.
- Publish work in scientific journals.
- Offer training courses and workshops.
Research Group Members
- Dr. Nizar Tayem
- Mr. Ahmed Abul Hussain
- Mr. Omair Butt
Lab Equipment
The NI PXI systems available in the lab are used for measurement and instrumentation. PXI combines PCI electrical-bus features with the modular, Eurocard packaging of Compact PCI and then adds specialized synchronization buses and key software features. PXI is a flexible and high-performance deployment platform. The tasks of a PXI system are determined by the types of modules plugged into the system. In this laboratory the PXI systems are mostly used for instrumentation and signal processing purposes.
The lab utilizes LabVIEW software from National Instruments enabling us to interact with the available hardware modules. LabVIEW is competitive and easy to learn because of its graphical programming nature.
Equipment and Tools
PXIe-1082 - 8-Slot, Up to 8 GB/s PXI Chassis:
It features a high-bandwidth backplane to meet a wide range of high-performance test and measurement application needs. It accepts PXI Express modules in every slot and supports standard PXI hybrid-compatible modules in up to four slots. The chassis features an extended operating temperature range for applications needing cooling performance.
PXIe-1075 - 18-Slot, Up to 4 GB/s PXI Chassis: It is designed for a wide range of test and measurement applications and provides a high-bandwidth backplane. The chassis features an extended operating temperature range for applications needing cooling performance.
PXIe-1062Q - 8-Slot, Quiet, Up to 3 GB/s PXI Chassis: It is designed for a wide range of test and measurement applications and provides a high-bandwidth backplane. The NI PXIe‑1062Q has four PXI peripheral slots, one PXI Express slot with system timing capabilities, and two PXI Express hybrid slots that accept both PXI and PXI Express peripheral modules.
SCB-68: It is multi-function input/output connector blocks. It can either be connected to any FPGA compatible device or to the X Series DAQ device.
X Series Data Acquisition Device: It is one of the most advanced DAQ devices ever designed by NI. It is equipped with enhanced onboard timing, triggering, data streaming, and driver software that make is possible to execute measurements and tasks in parallel at both the hardware and software levels.
USRP-2901: 70 MHz to 6 GHz, 2-Channel Software Defined Radio Device— It is a tunable RF transceiver with full-duplex, MIMO operation. It offers bus-powered connectivity with USB 3.0 or USB 2.0. You can also use the NI USRP‑2901 for the following communications applications: white space; broadcast FM; public safety; land-mobile, low-power unlicensed device bands; sensor networks; amateur radio; or GPS.
CDA-2990: It is an 8-channel clock distribution accessory for synchronizing software defined radio systems. It accepts both external 10 MHz and pulse per second (PPS) input signals and then amplifies and distributes each of them to eight output ports.
miniVNA Tiny: It is a handheld pc based Vector Network Analyzer that makes available a multitude of features and capabilities which are perfect for checking antennas and RF circuits for hams and commercial users from HF to SHF.
NI USB 5680-1: The NI USB-5680 is a highly accurate, stand-alone RF power meter that communicates with a PC using a USB connection. The NI 5680 RF power meter can accurately measure average power from 50 MHz to 6 GHz over 63 dB of dynamic range.
Publications:
NI CASE STUDY
Journal Papers
- A Alhamed, Nizar Tayem, T Alshawi, S Alshebeili, A Alsuwailem, A Hussain, “FPGA-based Real Time Implementation for Direction-of-Arrival Estimation,” The Journal of Engineering10.1049/joe.2017.0165 , May 2017
- N. Tayem, “Real time implementation for DOA estimation methods on NI-PXI platform," Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 59, 103-121, 2014
- N. Tayem, M. Omer, M. El-Lakki, S. A. Raza , J. Nayfeh,” Hardware Implementation of a Proposed QR-TLS DOA Estimation Method and Music, Esprit Algorithms on NI-PXI Platform,” Journal of Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 45, 203-221, November 2013
Conference Papers
- N. Tayem, M. Omer, A. Abul Hussain , “Hardware Implementation of MUSIC and ESPRIT on NI-PXI Platform,” IEEE MILCOM 2014, Baltimore, MD
- N. Tayem, M. Omer, A. Abul Hussain , “DOA Estimation Method using R Matrix of the QR Factorized Data and its Prototype Implementation on NI-PXI Platform,” IEEE MILCOM 2014, Baltimore, MD