Advanced Waveform Utility

AWU Overview

Importing, Processing, and Downloading Waveforms

The processing varies, depending on how many carriers are selected and which sub-steps you select to enable or disable.

This topic covers the following:

User Interface

Carrier Setup

Read Selected Waveform File

Frequency Offset Adjustment

Length Adjustment

Crest Factor Reduction

Apply Correction

Exporting to Local Disk

Exporting Data

Impairment

User Interface

Waveforms with one carrier and one segment

If the waveform has only one carrier and one segment, the waveform process (Figure 2) includes waveform importing, resampling, spectrum mirroring operation, crest factor reduction, waveform correction, and downloading.

Figure 2 (above) - Waveform process for one carrier and one segment

Waveforms with one carrier and more than one segment

If a carrier is comprised of more than one segment, all waveform files for that carrier must be processed into the one carrier, including waveform importing, sample rate alignment, and combination in time domain (Figure 4).

The resulting waveform then has the following processes applied (Figure 5):

Figure 4 (above). Segments waveform combination into carrier.

Figure 5 (above). Waveform process for one carrier and more than one segment.

Waveforms with more than one carrier

If you select more than one carrier, segments waveform combination will be done first on all carriers, then all carriers will go through spectrum mirroring, frequency offset alignment, time repeating, frequency time domain combination, crest factor reduction, correction, and downloading (Figure 7).

Figure 7 (above). Waveform process for two or more carriers.

Carrier Setup

The Carriers tab provides the following capabilities for configuring a waveform.

The settings appearing in the Carriers tab will vary slightly, depending on the carrier count and segment count.

If the waveform has only one carrier and one segment (Figure 8), the original sample rate of the segment is same as the carrier sample rate and the resampling ratio of carrier can be used to adjust final waveform sample rate.

Frequency offset is set here too.

Figure 8 (above). Carrier Setup GUI for one carrier and one segment.

If the waveform has one carrier and more than one segment in the carrier, every segment can be repeatable after import before being combined into the carrier. The maximum value of sample rate of all segments will be the sample rate of final combined carrier, so all segments will be resampled to align sample rate after repeating in time domain, and resampling ratio of carrier can be used to adjust final waveform sample rate.

Figure 9 (above). Carrier Setup GUI for one carrier and more than one segment.

If there is more than one carrier, the segments operation is the same as described above. However, the difference when compared to a one-carrier scenario (Figure 9) is that the Mixing tab is available (Figure 10).

Figure 10 (above). Carrier Setup GUI for more than one carrier and more than one segment per carrier.

Read Selected Waveform File

Used for selecting a waveform file on the GUI (Graphical User Interface). When selecting a.wfm file, the sample rate and the number of samples will be displayed in GUI. When selecting other waveform types, which have no sample rate information, only the Number of Samples is displayed and the correct sample rate should be input to playback the waveform correctly.

When using ASCII, CSV, or text files (*.dat, *.csv, *.txt), proper formatting must be applied to the IQ data of the selected waveform file. (See below.)

Example IQ data for comma-delimited (*.csv) decimal values

I1, Q1

I2, Q2

In, Qn

Example *.csv file

Example *.dat file

Example IQ data for space-delimited (*.txt) decimal values

I1 Q1

I2 Q2

In Qn

Example *.txt file

Example IQ data for space-delimited (*.txt) hexadecimal values

I1 Q1

I2 Q2

In Qn

Example *.txt file

Example IQ data for comma-delimited (*.txt) hexadecimal values

I1, Q1

I2, Q2

In, Qn

Example IQ data for *.wv file format

When importing file with *.wv extension, which is R&S *.wv format, sample rate and  number of samples info will be read, so far only raw IQ data without encryption is supported. IQ format is 16-bit 2’s complement and little endian.

Voltage

Dec

Hex

Endian Conv.

+1.0

32767

0x7FFF

FF7F

0

0

0

0000

-1.0

-32767

0x8001

0180

Definition marker/runtime scale of final waveform

If Waveform Type is Keysight Signal Studio, license information will be read out. Runtime Scaling, MarkerRoutingAlcHold, and MarkerRoutingPulse of the waveform will be read out and used as the default setting of hardware.

For other waveform types, there is no license information in selected waveform file. MarkerRoutingAlcHold and MarkerRoutingPulse of hardware will be none. Runtime Scaling of hardware will use default value.

Frequency Offset Adjustment

Frequency offset adjustment is needed for carriers mixing only, resampling setting is put aside frequency offset because it will affect the minimal needed waveform sample rate. Carrier enable/disable can be set here too.

If Sample Rate Mode is Auto, the resampling ratio is based on the procedure below:

If Sample Rate Mode is Manual, then the settings below can be changed manually:

Length Adjustment

Normally important waveforms have different time lengths, after resampling operation on all carriers, sample length will vary from carrier to carrier. When combining waveforms, the user needs to decide which carrier will be repeated and which carrier will be truncated.

To describe the time alignment rule, here name all time length after frequency offset alignment is finished as T1, T2, … Tn.

If Carrier Repeat Mode is Auto

If Carrier Repeat Mode is Manual

Crest Factor Reduction

Crest Factor Reduction enables the reduction of PAPR of the input waveform. With proper configuration, the PAPR of waveform can be suppressed to a specified level with certain damage. The peak cancellation algorithm is supported in AWU, which can be applied to any IQ waveform.

Figure 16 (above). Crest Factor Reduction.

Target PAPR

Set the PAPR value to achieve after CFR.

Max Iteration

Specify the maximum times of iteration. With the increasing of iteration, the PAPR value should converge to a steady level.

Cancelling Percent

Specify the percentage that the cancellation pulses can be removed.

Block Size

Block is the range that a single cancellation pulse can be identified. If the waveform length is L, and the block size is B, then the number of blocks is N = floor(L/B) + 1. Therefore, there will be N pulses at most to be removed.

Filter Mask

A table is used to design a filter response in frequency domain. In the table, the frequency points are entered with an order of increasing frequency in unit of MHz, and its corresponding amplitude is in unit of dB.

Apply Correction

Apply correction is done by using correction data from one .csv file and then applying the correction on the waveform. Currently, only equalization is supported by applying reversion of channel response on the waveform. Apply correction can be enabled or disabled on GUI.

Figure 17 (above). Introduction to Pre-Correction.

Figure 18 (above). Signal without correction applied.

Figure 19 (above). Signal with correction applied.

Normally, a correction file is created by calibration of AWU. But a custom correction file can be used, with the following format requirements for custom correction file,

Figure 20 (above). Custom correction file with requirements.

Exporting to Local Disk

Four types of waveform file (.wfm, .csv, .bin, . mat) can be imported and all waveform files will be exported to local disk as .wfm file before downloading into hardware.

License handling in waveform

If only one *. wfm file type is imported, license information of exported waveform will be same as imported waveform. Otherwise license information will be empty if other waveform file types are imported.

RMS and runtime-scaling calculation in waveform

RMS value will always be calculated and written to waveform header for any waveform type.

Regarding RuntimeScaling , if only one selected waveform imported and it’s type is Keysight Signal Studio, then RuntimeScaling of selected waveform will be copied into exported waveform. Otherwise RuntimeScaling value will be copied from Hardware side into exported waveform.

Exporting Data

The Export Data function is used to export the combined waveform in Keysight 16 Bin (*.bin) format to local disk. However, if the imported waveforms are Keysight Signal Studio format (*.wfm), then combined waveform cannot be exported. You can export waveform data as Big Endian, Little Endian, or .csv.

Figure 26 (above). Export Waveform.

Impairment

This feature is used to embed some impairment into waveform. Currently, channel flatness is supported, which is used to apply user input filter.

Figure 27 Impairment settings

User Flatness Profile is used to select the *.csv file which contains user-defined filter data, the content format needs to follow the below-mentioned convention.

YFormat,RI

XDelta,30000.0

XStart,-49140000.0

Y

0.707946,0.000000

0.707946,-0.000003

0.707948,-0.000008

0.707950,-0.000015

0.707953,-0.000026

0.707957,-0.000038

0.707962,-0.000054

0.707968,-0.000072

0.707975,-0.000092

0.707982,-0.000115

0.707991,-0.000141

0.708000,-0.000169

0.708011,-0.000200

0.708022,-0.000233

YFormat is used to define the meaning of data, may be RI, MA, or DB. GD

XDelta is the frequency step for all Y data pairs.

XStart is the start frequency which corresponds to first Y data pair,

Y is used to meaningful filter data will start in next line,

Filter data is defined as complex data array, so every line Y data has 2 columns, which is separated with one char which can be comma, semicolon, or space.

Click the following links to access a sample .csv file for User Flatness Profile. The two files are in RI and GD formats with same effects.

Welcome to AWU

Waveform Settings

Carrier Settings

Segment Settings

Crest Factor Reduction Settings

Correction Settings