Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Software-Defined Radio (SDR) is well-suited for experimenting with advanced wireless communication systems, as it allows to alter the architecture promptly while obtaining high performance. However, programming the FPGA using a Hardware Description Language (HDL) is a time-consuming task for FPGA developers and difficult for software developers, which limits the potential of SDR. High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools aid the designers by allowing them to program on a higher layer of abstraction. However, if not carefully designed, it may lead to a degradation in computing performance or significant increase in resource utilization. This work shows that it is feasible to design modern Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) baseband processing modules like channel estimation and equalization using HLS without sacrificing performance and to integrate them in an HDL design to form a fully-operational FPGA-based Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11a/g/n) transceiver. Starting from no HLS experience, a design with minor overhead in terms of latency and resource utilization as compared to the HDL approach was created in less than one month. We show the readability of the sequential logic as coded in HLS, and discuss the lessons learned from the approach taken and the benefits it brings for further design and experimentation. The FPGA design generated by HLS was verified to be bit-true with its MATLAB implementation in simulation. Furthermore, we show its practical performance when deployed on a System-on-Chip (SoC)-based SDR using a professional wireless connectivity tester.

翻译：基于现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）的软件无线电（SDR）非常适合用于实验先进无线通信系统，因为它允许快速更改架构同时获得高性能。然而，使用硬件描述语言（HDL）对FPGA进行编程对FPGA开发者而言耗时巨大，对软件开发者而言则困难重重，这限制了SDR的潜力。高级综合（HLS）工具通过允许设计者在更高抽象层级进行编程来辅助设计。然而，若设计不当，可能导致计算性能下降或资源利用率显著增加。本研究表明，使用HLS设计现代正交频分复用（OFDM）基带处理模块（如信道估计与均衡）而无需牺牲性能是可行的，并可将其集成到HDL设计中，形成完整的基于FPGA的Wi-Fi（IEEE 802.11a/g/n）收发器。从零HLS经验起步，在不到一个月的时间内，我们创建了一个相较于HDL方法在延迟和资源利用率方面开销较小的设计。我们展示了用HLS编码的时序逻辑的可读性，并讨论了所采用方法的经验教训及其对进一步设计和实验带来的益处。由HLS生成的FPGA设计在仿真中与MATLAB实现验证为比特精确。此外，我们展示了其在基于片上系统（SoC）的SDR上部署时，使用专业无线连接测试仪测得的实际性能。