Implementation and Performance Analysis of a Low Resolution OFDM System Prototype with Low Cost Hardware

Abstract

The present work focuses on the implementation and analyzes of performance of a low-resolution OFDM system prototype with low-cost hardware. A software defined radio (SDR) system was chosen in this implementation due to its various advantages over a traditional radio system. Among the options of SDR devices available, the use of universal software radio peripherals (USRP) was avoided due to its high cost, despite its popularity in this field of research. Alternatively, a combination of two low-cost SDRs, "Hackrf One" and "RTL-SDR Blog V3" with the GNU RADIO, a popular, free and open source radio software, were used. Thus, it was possible to emulate the behavior of a low resolution A/D converter in the receiver, characterize its performance and estimate its energy savings. This allowed us to determine the feasibility of building a component with the analog-to-digital conversion function with few bits of resolution. We conclude that the performance of an A/D converter with at least 4 bits of resolution is pretty reasonable and that this reduction in the number of bits, in comparison to 8-bit A/D converter, represent a fairly expressive energy saving.