Sixth-generation (6G) communication systems are poised to accommodate high data-rate wireless communication services in highly dynamic channels, with applications including high-speed trains, unmanned aerial vehicles, and intelligent transportation systems. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation suffers from performance degradation in such high-mobility applications due to high Doppler spread in the channel. The recently proposed Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation scheme outperforms OFDM in terms of supporting a higher transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) user velocity. Additionally, the highly-dynamic time-frequency (TF) channel has little effect on OTFS modulated signals, which enables the realization of low-complexity pre-processing architectures for implementing massive-multiple input multiple outputs (MIMO) based OTFS systems. However, while OTFS has received attention in the literature from a theory and simulation perspective, there has been comparatively little work on real-time FPGA implementation of OTFS waveforms. Thus, in this paper, we first present a mathematical overview of OTFS modulation and then describe an FPGA implementation of OTFS implementation on hardware. Power, area, and timing analysis of the implemented design on a Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC FPGA are provided for benchmarking purposes.

翻译：第六代（6G）通信系统旨在高动态信道中支持高数据速率无线通信服务，其应用场景包括高速列车、无人机和智能交通系统。由于信道中存在高多普勒扩展，正交频分复用（OFDM）调制在此类高移动性应用中存在性能退化问题。近期提出的正交时频空（OTFS）调制方案在支持更高的收发端用户移动速度方面优于OFDM。此外，高动态时频信道对OTFS调制信号影响极小，这使得可实现低复杂度预处理架构来搭建基于大规模多输入多输出（MIMO）的OTFS系统。然而，尽管OTFS在理论分析和仿真层面已受到学术界关注，但针对OTFS波形的实时FPGA实现研究相对较少。为此，本文首先给出OTFS调制的数学概述，随后描述OTFS在硬件上的FPGA实现方案。基于Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC FPGA平台的实现设计，提供了功耗、面积与时序分析作为基准测试参考。