Verify Viterbi Decoder Using MATLAB System Object and HDL Simulator

This example uses:

Communications Toolbox

This example shows you how to use MATLAB® System objects and Mentor Graphics® ModelSim®/QuestaSim® or Cadence® Incisive®/Xcelium® to cosimulate a Viterbi decoder implemented in VHDL.

Set Simulation Parameters and Instantiate Communication System Objects

If you are using Incisive/Xcelium, set simulator variable to 'Incisive'

Simulator = 'Incisive';

or if you are using ModelSim/QuestaSim, set simulator variable to 'ModelSim'

Simulator = 'ModelSim';

The following code sets up the simulation parameters and instantiates the system objects that represent the channel encoder, BPSK modulator, AWGN channel, BPSK demodulator, and error rate calculator. Those objects comprise the system around the Viterbi decoder and can be thought of as the test bed for the Viterbi HDL implementation.

EsNo = 0;	% Energy per symbol to noise power spectrum density ratio in dB
FrameSize = 1024;  % Number of bits in each frame

Convolution Encoder

hConEnc = comm.ConvolutionalEncoder;

BPSK Modulator

hMod    = comm.BPSKModulator;

AWGN channel

hChan   = comm.AWGNChannel('NoiseMethod', ...
                           'Signal to noise ratio (Es/No)',...
                           'SamplesPerSymbol',1,...
                           'EsNo',EsNo);

BPSK demodulator

hDemod  = comm.BPSKDemodulator('DecisionMethod','Log-likelihood ratio',...
                               'Variance',0.5*10^(-EsNo/10));

Error Rate Calculator

hError  = comm.ErrorRate('ComputationDelay',100,'ReceiveDelay', 58);

Instantiate the Cosimulation System Object

The hdlcosim function returns an HDL cosimulation System object, which represents the HDL implementation of the Viterbi decoder in this simulation system. The object's interface is common for all simulators. As a convenience to avoid writing some HDL testbench code, we generate waveforms for the clocks and resets using simulator-specific Tcl code.

hDec = hdlcosim('InputSignals', {'/viterbi_block/In1','/viterbi_block/In2'}, ...
                'OutputSignals', {'/viterbi_block/Out1'}, ...
                'OutputSigned', false, ...
                'OutputFractionLengths', 0, ...
                'TCLPostSimulationCommand', 'echo "done";', ...
                'PreRunTime', {10,'ns'}, ...
                'Connection', {'Shared'}, ...
                'SampleTime', {10,'ns'});
switch Simulator
    case 'ModelSim'
        hDec.TCLPreSimulationCommand = ...
            'force /viterbi_block/clk_enable 1 0; force /viterbi_block/clk 0 0 ns, 1 5 ns -repeat 10 ns; force /viterbi_block/reset 1 0 ns, 0 8 ns; ';
    case 'Incisive'
        hDec.TCLPreSimulationCommand = ...
            'force :clk B"0" -after 0ns B"1" -after 5ns -repeat 10ns; force reset B"1" -after 0ns B"0" -after 8ns; force :clk_enable B"1" -after 0ns';
end

Launch HDL Simulator

The vsim and nclaunch command launches HDL simulator. The launched HDL simulator session compiles the HDL design and loads the HDL simulation. You are ready to perform cosimulation when the HDL simulation is fully loaded in simulator.

disp('Launching HDL simulator...');
switch Simulator
    case 'ModelSim'
        vsim('tclstart',viterbi_cosimulation_tclcmds('vsimmatlabsysobj'));
    case 'Incisive'
        nclaunch('tclstart',viterbi_cosimulation_tclcmds('hdlsimmatlabsysobj'));
end
Timeout=30;
processid = pingHdlSim(Timeout);
% Check if HDL simulator is ready for Cosimulation.
assert(ischar(processid),['Timeout: HDL simulator took more than ', num2str(Timeout),' seconds to setup,please increase the timeout in ''pingHdlSim''']);
disp('...Simulator is ready for cosimulation.');

Launching HDL simulator...
...Simulator is ready for cosimulation.

Run Cosimulation

This example simulates the BPSK communication system in MATLAB incorporating the Viterbi decoder HDL implementation via the cosimulation System object. This section of the code calls the processing loop to process the data frame-by-frame with 1024 bits in each data frame.

for counter = 1:20480/FrameSize
    data            = randi([0 1],FrameSize,1);
    encodedData     = step(hConEnc, data);
    modSignal       = step(hMod, encodedData);
    receivedSignal  = step(hChan, modSignal);
    demodSignalSD   = step(hDemod, receivedSignal);
    quantizedValue  = fi(4-demodSignalSD,0,3,0);
    input1          = quantizedValue(1:2:2*FrameSize);
    input2          = quantizedValue(2:2:2*FrameSize);
    receivedBits    = step(hDec,input1, input2);
    errors          = step(hError, data, double(receivedBits));
end

Display the Bit-Error Rate

The Bit-Error Rate is displayed for the Viterbi decoder.

sprintf('Bit Error Rate is %d\n',errors(1))

ans =

    'Bit Error Rate is 5.511269e-03
     '

Destroy Cosimulation System Object to Release HDL Simulator

The HDL simulator is unblocked when the HDL cosimulation system object is destroyed in MATLAB. Close the HDL simulator session manually.

clear hDec;

This concludes the "Verify Viterbi Decoder Using MATLAB System Object and HDL Simulator".

Documentation