From WiFi to WiMax: Efficient GPU-based parameterized transceiver across different OFDM protocols

Abstract

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) has become a popular modulation scheme for wireless protocols because of its spectral efficiency and robustness against multipath interference. Although the components of various OFDM protocols are functionally similar, they remain distinct because of the characteristics of the environment. Recently, graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used to accelerate the signal processing of the physical layer (PHY) because of their great computational power, high development efficiency, and flexibility. In this paper, we describe the implementation of parameterized baseband modules using GPUs for two different OFDM protocols, namely, 802.11a and 802.16. First, we introduce various modules in the modulator/demodulator parts of the transmitter and receiver and analyze the computational complexity of each module. We then describe the integration of the GPU-based baseband modules of the two protocols using the parameterized method. GPU-based implementations are addressed to explain how to accelerate the baseband processing to archive real-time throughput. Finally, the performance results of each signal processing module are evaluated and analyzed. The experiments show that the GPU-based 802.11a and 802.16 PHY meet the real-time requirement and demonstrate good bit error ratio (BER) performance. The performance comparison indicates that our GPU-based implemented modules have better flexibility and throughput to the current ones. © 2013 KSII.