Evaluation Engineering - 26

SIMULATION/WIRELESS TEST

researchers-they're not in the business
of supporting design. Their job is to build
their IT, not to build tools to help. It's
difficult to build those in-house simulations. Those downstream engineers are
similar to the second-tier companies,
and further down startups and smaller
companies need to ramp up quickly on
the standard. The good news is there is
help available. In the past, we have seen
quite a few customers who have done that
using MathWorks' MatLab.
MH: How prevalent have simulation
tools been for designers working in the
wireless communications space up to
this point? Why is this the case?
KK: I think the big change is being able
to create behavioral simulation where
you can consider the digital RF antenna
components together. There's been simulation tools for each of those for a while
now. Putting them into an overall system
has been a challenge. If you are building a
wireless space station and getting a power
amplifier from your supplier, you likely
need to develop common algorithms
because power amplifier is nonlinear.
Linearity is important because it saves
power and keeps signals where you want
them. There really haven't been tools that
have enabled that kind of design, looping them together in the same simulation.
Specialist tools are valuable for this. In the
past, the only way to connect separate
tools was to build a prototype board and
test it in your lab. Being able to do that
in simulations where you have models,

MathWorks

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EVALUATION ENGINEERING JULY 2019

MathWorks

multidomain simulation gives you enough
confidence at the simulation level that you
can reduce the testing time.

years, but it's always been a programming
function. Now, we're providing engineers
graphical representation of it.

MH: What tools currently exist for designers to assist with their respective
wireless communication development
challenges that they may have been previously unaware of?

MH: You previously alluded to the benefits of a shared simulation environment
for next-gen communication designers. Why may designers be unaware
such an option exists, and how can
test be best utilized within this kind of
environment?

KK: It's a funny fact of human nature-if
you're reasonably comfortable and not
aware there's another way to do something, you're not going to look for one.
Our waveform generation tool is a big productivity boost for RF/antenna engineers
because all the knobs are right there in
front of your face in such an instrument
feature. We've also invested a lot in propagation models. We have ways of modeling
that statistically, as well as showing it on
a map, showing what coverage you get.
With over-the-air (OTA) testing, we've all
had the ability to generate waveforms for

KK: There is certainly now a recognized
need for a shared simulation environment, and parts of it have already existed.
It is a complex task and takes different
expertise to build an effective RF simulation tool, compared to the physical layer
on the digital side.
Even on our own MathWorks teams,
our RF guys and digital guys sometimes
have trouble communicating with each
other. You have to work hard to break
down those silos. It's been a long-term
investment and quest for us to do that.
We're not completely finished, but if you
look at where we were 5 years ago, it's
pretty significant progress.
A shared simulation environment
would be valuable to other customers who
are entering the market. For example, we
recently worked with a small company
that was making a digital IP for a power
amplifier for developing 4G chips. They're
connecting to their instruments for OTA
testing, and use algorithm validation on
their boards. They used MathWorks'
Simulink shared simulation program, that
customer estimates that they've cut their
development time in half.
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