Hardware-software co-simulation of adaptive MC-CDMA physical layer for wireless communications

Shorter time-to-market constraints for complex System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, like that of future wireless transceivers, demand shorter system development and simulation times. Hardware-Software (HW-SW) co-simulation is a novel methodology which promises accurate and rapid prototyping along-with faster simulation times for heterogeneous systems design by introducing hardware (FPGA) within the simulation loop. In this paper we demonstrate co-simulation for an adaptive MC-CDMA physical layer, using state-of-the-art co-simulation tools of Simulink with Xilinx System Generator. The IFFT/FFT part of the MC-CDMA model was co-simulated on Virtex-II FPGA hosted over the Alpha Data ADM-XRC-II board. The simulation results help us develop an insight into the flexibility and efficiency of the co-simulation tool/methodology.