Soft Link Architecture (SOLAR)

Purpose and goal

The first goal of the project was to develop a demonstrator which shows that the concept of using flexible baseband platforms is suitable for microwave backhaul. The second goal was to develop IPR in the field of baseband signal processing for communication systems operating at microwave frequencies. In the project a flexible hardware platform was put together using both programable logic and digital signal processors. Even IPR in the form of algorithms and their hardware implementation was developed in the project.

Expected results and effects

The result of the project is a flexibel hardware platform. However, with the technology used it is currently not suitable for microwave backhaul owing to the cost profile as well as the power consumption. However, with small modification on the interface side it is possible to use the platform for radar applications. Today the platform is being developed further and to be used in a commercial radar product developed at Qamcom. The knowledge and IPR on baseband algorithms is today further evolved within commercial projects at Qamcom and within Horizon 2020 research related to 5G.

Planned approach and implementation

During the project Qamcom has had an intense dialog with key players in the telecom industri both on the component manufacture side and the system side in order to understand where technical development goes. Towards the end of the project it became clearer that a commercial backhaul product based on the developed platform is not realisable within the next two years. In the last phase of the project we therefore chose to shift focus slightly and modify the hardware towards radar in order to have a commercializable result.