Design and evaluation of a digital wireless development platform

Abstract

As Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) become more popular, new features and functionalities are added to these devices. Where, in the beginning, only data transfer was required, nowadays e.g. location awareness of WPAN devices is wanted[1][2]. WPAN protocols like Bluetooth and Zigbee can be implemented quite easily, but the available devices have a pre-established functionality. This fixed functionality is, when it comes to evaluating forthcoming WPAN features, an unwanted limitation. To evaluate these new functionalities a dynamic programmable wireless system is needed. This paper describes a development platform for digital wireless systems in the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) frequency band. The first part of the paper deals with the hardware description of the platform and the discussion of its capabilities. In the second part a test set-up is described. Finally, the platform is evaluated.