Deploying 5G NR Wireless Communications on FPGAs: A Complete MATLAB and Simulink Workflow

Designing innovative wireless communication devices requires close collaboration across multiple disciplines. Deploying algorithmic models to FPGA hardware enables rapid prototyping and over-the-air testing, and automatically generating HDL code directly from system-level algorithms eliminates time-consuming steps in implementation and verification.

Using a 5G NR Cell Search design to illustrate the process, this white paper describes the workflow for converting MATLAB^® algorithms and Simulink^® models directly to HDL for FPGAs.

Topics include:

• 5G NR standard-compliant algorithmic modeling with MATLAB and 5G Toolbox
  
• Transitioning from a frame-based MATLAB algorithm to a streaming Simulink implementation
• Fixed-point implementation using Fixed-Point Designer™ and target hardware knowledge
• Speeding design by using proven intellectual property (IP) blocks
• Generating HDL and deploying on target hardware, in this case a AMD^® Zynq^® device