WCA's next meeting will be

Date: Tuesday, September 17th, 2002
Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM.
Location: Hewlett-Packard in Cupertino
19091 Pruneridge Ave., Cupertino, CA
Building 48S, Oak Room Auditorium

This month we are holding our meeting at HP, Cupertino. We may from time to
time change locations, so please check this site for the latest updates.

Snacks - both healthy and non healthy - are provided

September WCA Meeting Agenda:

"Challenges and Solutions in Broadband Communication Systems Verification"
Jack Anderson, Founder and CTO of Celerity Systems Inc, an L-3
Communications Company

The growth of broadband communications has created new challenges in broadband systems development. From 3G cellular to BluetoothTM, 802.11b, and 802.11a WLANS to cable modem to DSL to MMDS, LMDS, and the towering heights of the newest satellite 'internet in the sky' systems, the 'need for speed' pushes the designs for faster data rates, more sophisticated modulation schemes, and highly complex coding algorithms. While it is clear that these systems demonstrate improvements in spectral efficiencies, they also become rather sensitive to impairments such as thermal noise, I/Q imbalance, phase noise, phase and amplitude distortion, channel loading, multipath, and
interference. It is important to test and characterize new designs with signal environments that can closely emulate the real world. Likewise, engineers must have tools that allow them to interpret the effects of the signal impairments. In this talk, we will discuss these real world impairments through examples that illustrate their effects on system performance.

GNU Radio- An introduction and overview of Software Defined Radios (SDR) based on the GNU Software model
Steve Schear, CEO of Lamarr Labs.

GNU Radio is a collection of open source software (based on the GNU model) that when combined with minimal hardware, allows the construction of radios where the actual wave forms transmitted and received are defined by software. What this means is that it turns the digital modulation schemes used in today's high performance wireless devices into software problems. On the receive side, the idea is to get a wide band analog-to-digital converter as close to the antenna as is convenient, get the samples into the PC's memory and then grind on them in software. The talk will include an overview of SDR, its advantages and disadvantages, how SDR fits into current and emerging applications, the current direction of GNU Radio, and some of the regulatory/political implications of open SDR.

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WCA is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the mutual benefit of Northern California companies and organizations involved in wireless communication technologies.

- For additional WCA info see: www.wca.org
- Program ends at 6:00 PM with networking until 6:30 PM.
- Participants are cautioned not to discuss proprietary information.
- Questions: Contact Al Juodikis at (408) 984-7269, email: wca@wca.org
- A $10.00 donation will be collected at the door to defray costs.

 

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Mark your calendar for these upcoming WCA meetings

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October 15th Meeting

 

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