Linking RF Design And Test Through AWR Software And National Instruments LabVIEW/T&M

Many veteran designers no doubt remember how comparatively simple it was to design base station or mobile phone amplifiers when the only modulation technique was analog and amplifier performance could be verified using Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). Nowadays, second (and subsequent) generations of wireless networks usher in digital modulation techniques that necessitate the need to stimulate amplifiers and other circuits with waveforms they actually process in service. It therefore necessitates far tighter integration between the baseband signal processing and high-frequency circuit design tools as well as actual test equipment for both generating these modulated waveforms and evaluating their effects on the performance of the design.

This application note describes the benefits of using AWR's high-frequency design software products (Microwave Office™ and Visual System Simulator™ (VSS)) seamlessly alongside National Instruments' graphical programming software environment, LabVIEW, and a broad range of modular instruments to better meet the challenges posed by today's complex wireless access methods.