Waveform system co-design and verification

Secure waveform development and test

Accelerate transition from your desktop environment for waveform design to your test and verification labs

Streamline waveform prototyping, porting and verification with the combination of Rohde & Schwarz instruments and desktop design environments such as MATLAB® or LabVIEW. Additionally, you can use arbitrary waveform generators and waveform analyzers to test, measure and verify your waveform design within the final hardware.

New software defined radios provide manufacturers with higher flexibility in designing, implementing and maintaining multiple waveforms within a single hardware platform. Nowadays, radiofrequency engineers use software-based model-based design (MBD) workflows to develop and perform waveform analysis. The MBD environments can even generate C or HDL code automatically for rapid prototyping. Given the complexity of these military communications waveforms, software simulation is not enough and the evaluation of the waveform system with the real hardware is mandatory.

Our instruments are designed to ease the transition away from these modern desktop MBD environments, so that initial testing cases described in the software environment can seamlessly be transferred and reused directly by the corresponding instrument for the hardware testing phases. Our solution also provides the capability to receive, synchronize and analyze your military waveform data directly in the R&S®Cloud4Testing analytics platform with just one click.

Military-communication-testing-waveform-system-co-design-and-verification-intro-diagram-rohde-schwarz_1440.jpg

The test and measurement solutions from Rohde & Schwarz ensure flawless performance and reliability on every level, from testing of assemblies and components up to verification of the complete radio communication system.

Let us know how we can support you.

Rohde & Schwarz instrument integration with MATLAB®

Most waveform engineers working in military communications use MATLAB® to design and customize their communication waveforms. As a result, seamless integration with Rohde & Schwarz instruments has become essential in their daily work. Both companies cooperate with the strategic objective to fully address the needs of this market.

The Instrument Control Toolbox™ from MathWorks® lets you connect MATLAB® directly to instruments such as oscilloscopes, signal generators, signal analyzers, power supplies and analytical instruments. The toolbox connects to your instruments via instrument drivers such as VISA or SCPI for Rohde & Schwarz instruments. This allows control and acquisition of data from test equipment without writing code.

With the Instrument Control Toolbox™ you can generate data in MATLAB® to send out to an instrument or read data into MATLAB® for analysis and visualization, allowing you to automate tests, verify hardware designs and build test systems.

Resource center for instrument remote control and drivers

If you need to learn more about connecting other environments with our instruments, visit this resource page: Remote Control and Instrument Drivers

  • The web page will help you understand the basic concepts of remote control, SCPI or VISA.
  • You will learn with practical examples how to use VISA in programing languages or what is the difference of using SCPI instead.
  • Additionally, you will find information on how to measure synchronization with the instruments, check instruments’ errors or optimize operation for your specific testing requirements.
  • Finally, this web resource allows you to download code examples (code files) to experiment and try out the connection to your instruments using VISA commands with programing or scripting languages such MATLAB®, Python 3.x, C#, LabView or CVI.

To search and download instrument drivers, follow the link: Search for instrument drivers.

Watch our webinar

Testing secure radios in time, frequency and digital domain

FAQs

What is a waveform in context of military communication (MILCOM)?

A waveform is referred to as part of a military communication asset, comprises of much more information than just the physical key parameters like amplitude, frequency or phase.

In general, the waveform provides all the necessary parameters to successfully set up a specific secure radio network in a military or law enforcement scenario. Modern waveforms like e.g. SATURN will provide information on every OSI-model-layer (Open Systems Interconnection model) such as physical, data link, network, and even application level.

Waveform is considered an important asset in terms of industrial property and is of the most sensitive characteristic and differentiator of the current and future military radios.

How are common waveforms used for current secure radios designs?

We can classify the secure waveforms in those developed by large consortiums and details of the waveforms are known by the consortium participants. These waveforms are developed to ensure interoperability between different group of users. A good example of these waveforms are APCO, PMR or TETRA waveforms specifically designed to be used by law-enforcements or public safety agencies around the globe. These radios can be easily configured to use these common waveforms enabling secure communications between these different groups of users. Another example are the waveforms developed by specific armed forces alliances, a good example of it are the SATURN, HAEQUICK, or the ESSOR waveform developed to allow interoperability between the NATO allies.

The second group of secure waveforms are those provided by radio manufacturers, or developed by specific armed-forces labs. These waveforms are full proprietary and completely closed, avoiding any possibility to interoperability with other waveforms. The owner of the waveforms have the specifics and required details in order to develop products that are compatible with these waveforms, and it is rarely the case that one of the proprietary waveform is ported from a radio from one manufacturer to a radio from another manufacturer.

Sign up for our newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter

Stay up to date on upcoming trends and latest applications.