Getting started with the DVB-T2 Common Simulation Platform

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Ollie Haffenden, 2011-09-14
Updated 2012-03-01
These steps should help you to get the DVB-T2 Common Simulation Platform (CSP) i
nstalled and running. You will need MATLAB 2008a or later, with the Communicatio
ns and Signal Processing toolboxes installed.
1. Get the CSP. You can either:
- download and unzip the zipfile of the latest release from https://sour
ceforge.net/projects/dvb-t2-csp/files/releases, or
- Check the HEAD (or other) revision out of the Subversion repository at
https://dvb-t2-csp.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/dvb-t2-csp/trunk. See http://p.s
f.net/sourceforge/svn for more information on using Subversion with SourceForge.
net
The CSP can be put in any convenient location in your file system. File paths wi
ll be given relative to the top level of the CSP, i.e. the directory containing
model, sim and util subdirectories.
2. Start MATLAB
3. Compile the MEX files - these are written in C and need to be compiled t
o binary files (e.g. .mexw32 in Windows) before running the CSP:
- In MATLAB, navigate to the model/mex directory (using cd from the comm
and line or using the GUI)
- Type the following command on the command line:
compile_mex
- This should search through the model directory and compile all the MEX
files, placing the binaries in model/mex/lib.
- You may be offered a choice of C compiler
4. Change to the sim directory. This is where you will run your chosen simu
lation, using the "run" command. You need to execute this command from the sim d
irectory otherwise MATLAB will invoke the built-in "run" command which will resu
lt in an error.
The basic syntax is as follows:
run(Test_Id,Work_Dir_Id,Log_Output, ...)
- Test_Id is the test you want to run. There are a number of different tes
ts, discussed in [1]. The simplest is dvbt2bl_basic.
- Work_Dir_Id is the name of a working directory within the test directory
(sim/test_<Test_Id>) where intermediate files are stored. This can be set to 'w
ork'
- Log_Output selects where logging messages are sent. There are three opti
ons: 'stdout', 'file'. and 'afile'. 'stdout' sends the output to the standard ou
tput, normally the MATLAB console, while the other two options write to a file '
sim/test_<Test_Id>/logs/simlog.txt'. The difference is that 'afile' will append
to the file if it exists already, whereas 'file' will rewrite the file, deleting
any existing contents.
- The fourth option can be used to configure many parameters of the si
mulation, by specifying a cell array containing a list of assignment commands of
the form 'DVBT2.<fieldname>=<value>'. Some examples will be given below.
A simple simulation can be run using the line:
run('dvbt2bl_basic','work','stdout',{'DVBT2.STRICT=0'})
This will ensure that the CSP has been correctly installed and all the required
files are present. Note that this does not generate a DVB-T2 compliant mode; amo
ngst other things it has no pilots, and the 'DVBT2.STRICT=0' setting is required
to stop the simulation from giving an error as a result. For serious use, it is
recommended to use one of the following:
- 'dvbt2bl_VV' will configure the CSP according to one of the reference co
nfigurations defined by the Validation and Verification group of DVB-T2 and gene
rate reference output files at various points in the chain. For more information
see the documentation and spreadsheet at ftp://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/t2refs. An exam
ple run command is:
run('dvbt2bl_VV', 'work', 'stdout',{'DVBT2.SIM.VV_CONFIG_NAME=''
VV007-16KFFT''','DVBT2.SIM.SIMDIR=''C:/local/dvb-t2/CSPData''','DVBT2.CH.ENABLE=
0','DVBT2.RX.ENABLE=0'})
This command line shows how fields of the DVBT2 structure can be set to
specified values in order to control the simulation. Note how two single-quote c
haracters are used to produce one single-quote character for fields that are of
string type. In this example, we have specified the V&V test case to be simulate
d, a directory in which working files and output files will be stored, and disab
led both the channel model and receiver.
- 'dvbt2bl_ber_snr' will run a simulation of the end-to-end chain at diffe
rent signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and measure the resulting bit error ratio
(BER). This simulation disables certain aspects of the DVB-T2 standard such as p
ilots and preambles. Whilst the resulting signal is not DVB-T2 compliant, these
are the conditions that were defined for simulation within the DVB-T2 standardis
ation group.
- 'dvbt2bl_ber_snr_VV' is similar, but it performs the BER simulation usin
g a specified DVB-T2 compliant mode.
More example commands can be found in utils/exampleCommands.m.
For more information about the structure of the CSP, the various simulations ava
ilable, please see reference [1].
[1] DVB-T2: The Common Simulation Platform, BBC R&D White Paper 196, http://
downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP196.pdf