Nowadays we use RF devices everywhere. We could easily mention our cell phones and Wi-Fi devices as examples. Apart from the previous examples, RF devices could be used in many different ways such as wifi based positioning. Developing RF devices requires special device that can generate custom signals – radio frequency signal generators. These devices on the market have very high price, which resuls in a demand for a cost efficient, self-constructed hardware.
The purpose of my thesis is to design an FPGA-based radio device, which can generate test signals. First of all I present the known modulation and coding methods. Then, because the transmitter should be able to transmit WiFi packets as well – I present the MAC layer of a WiFi device.
In the second part of the thesis I overview the design of the hardware. After that, I am going show how I managed to get it working, and I present the most significant results of the tests and experiments. After the testing of the basic functionality, a command based control method is developed which makes possible to generate arbitrary waveforms.
I conclude my work by functional and performance testing the designed device.