Tab1: Home:

Introduction:
The aim of GRAF is to develop an environment for research in FPGAs, FPGA Based
System Design and SoC/SoPC. The group conducts research in many aspects of
FPGAs including FPGA architecture exploration, high level design tools,
reconfigurable computer architectures, and applications of FPGAs and
reconfigurable hardware in a number of domains such as Video and Image
Processing, DSP and Communication System Engineering and Networks-on-Chip. We
are also keen in collaborative research with companies and academic groups who
share common interest in state-of-the-art research in the area of digital integrated
circuits.

Objectives

To provide students and faculty an opportunity to work in advanced

technological domain of ASIC and reconfigurable devices
To develop linkages with local industry and to provide them with the
experience in these highly advanced technologies
To provide highly innovative and cost-effective FPGA based solutions to the
local industry problems
To design efficient and reliable FPGA based systems

News and Events:

A Seminar on "Waveform Processing Techniques for Software Defined Radio"

has been organized by SDR Team in SEECS Seminar Hall on 29th December,
2011. Download Presentation (http://grafcefar.seecs.nust.edu.pk/pages/SDR_Presentations/)

Two research papers have been published in IEEE international conferences

held at Hong Kong (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?
arnumber=6081630&reason=concurrency)
and Hangzhou China (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?
arnumber=6090035&reason=concurrency) in 2011

Mr. Jameel Nawaz Malik, successfully completed his MS and has been
appointed as a faculty member at NUST-SEECS, EE Dept

Mr. Jamshaid Sarwar, has successfully completed his time period at NUSTSEECS as a PhD Student. He is currently at KTH, Sweden (since August 2011)
to complete his PhD thesis (a split PhD Program between NUST-SEECS and
KTH Sweden)
Two research papers were published in 2010 in international conferences held
in Spain (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?
arnumber=5629097&tag=1) and in Egypt

(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?
arnumber=5711731&reason=concurrency)

Tab 2: People:

Dr. N. D. Gohar
Group Leader
Professor EE Deptt
PhD, Imperial College London, UK
Email: nasir.gohar@ seecs.edu.pk
URL: http://ndgohar.seecs.nust.edu.pk/
SDR Group
Nust Team

Mr. Jamshaid Sarwar

Team Lead
PhD Student (Split PhD NUST& KTH, Sweden)
Email: jamsjaid@ kth.se

Mr.Muhammad Jameel Nawaz

Team Lead
Lecturer, EE Deptt
MS, NUST-SEECS
Email: muhammad.jameel@ seecs.edu.pk
2

Ms. Syeda Hira Taqdees

MS Student, NUST-SEECS, Pakistan
Email: 11mseestaqdees@seecs.edu.pk

Mr. Ahsan Saadat

MS Student, NUST-EME, Pakistan
Email:Ahsan.saadat@seecs.edu.pk

Ms. Shumaila Farhat

Project Coordinator (MPA, FJWU,Rawalpindi, Pakistan)
Email: shumaila.farhat@seecs.edu.pk
KTH Team
Dr. Ahmed Hemani
Faculty, KTH Sweden
PhD, KTH, Sweden
Email: hemani @kth.se
Mr. Mohammad Ali Shami
PhD Scholar
KTH, Sweden
Email: shami @kth.se
3

Mr. Omer Malik

PhD Scholar
KTH, Sweden
Email: omerm@kth.se
DAAC Group

Dr. Awais Mehmood Kamboh

Technical Supervisor
Assistant Professor EE Deptt
PhD, Michigan State University, USA
Email: awais.kamboh@ seecs.edu.pk
URL:http://amkamboh.seecs.nust.edu.pk

Mr. Sohaib Saadat Afridi

MS Student,NUST
Email:10mseesafridi @seecs.edu.pk

Mr. Mubeen Tayyab

MS Student, NUST
Email: 11mseemtayyab @ seecs.edu.pk

Past Members

Wg. Cdr. (R) Nasir Mehmood

MS (BUAA) China

Assistant Professor, NUST -SEECS

Ms. Saba Zia

Lecturer, NUST-SEECS

Ms. Mehwish Awan

Research Assistant
Kashif Javed
MS Scholar KTH, Sweden
Sohail Asghar
MS Scholar KTH, Sweden
Shahnawaz Janjua
Researcher (UG Student)
Muhammad Uzair
Researcher (UG Student)
Yasir Habib
Researcher (UG Student)

Tab 3: Research
Current Projects
5

Software Defined Radio Development using a Network-On-Chip based

Rapid Prototyping Platform
Professor Dr. N. D. Gohar at NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) has won
a grant of Rs. 14.66 million from ICT Research and Development Fund for the design
and development of a Software-Defined-Radio (SDR), using a Network-On-Chip
(NOC)-based Rapid Prototyping Platform. This project, to be completed over a period
of 4 years, aims to provide not only an NOC-based solution to SDR realization
problem but also to develop research infrastructure and skilled manpower in this
cutting-edge research area. The research and development stages will involve,
besides three PhDs and six MS students, a number of Bachelor students working on
certain sub-modules of an SDR as their final year projects. The successful design
and development of a complete Network on Chip-based platform will also enable
SDR computations at mobile base stations. In addition to ICT R&D Fund financial
support, KTH will also provide Rs. 10 million for this project.
Software-Defined-Radio is a technology that is still in a state of infancy. The project
focuses on developing a Scalable, Flexible and Modular Radio Systems
Experimentation and Prototyping Platform (REXAPP) based on NOC (developed at
KTH, Sweden), to provide basic foundation for SDR digital processing-a step forward
in the development of future wireless communication systems.
The project has been funded by ICT Research & Development Fund.
For project page click here (Link of sub tab of SDR)
Digitally Assisted Analog Circuits
During the last 15 years increase in the performance of digital ICs has become 150
times more than their analog counterparts. Since any real world system must
compose of analog components, slow advancement of analog integrated circuits is
now actually hindering the development of digital electronics. If these trends
continue to occur, this problem is likely to become worse in the near future. Digitally
Assisted Analog Circuits is a recently proposed method that has tremendous
potential to nullify this effect. Basic idea is to simplify the analog circuits at the cost
of decreased precision. This loss in precision is then modeled and compensated in
the digital domain.
This project has been funded by Higher Education Commission.
For project page click here (Link of sub tab of DAAC project)
Completed Projects
1- FPGA Based MIL-STD-1553 Remote Terminal/Bus Controller/ Bus
Monitor
FPGA based MIL-STD-1553 Remote Terminal(RT)/Bus Controller(BC)/Bus Monitor(MT)
implements the MIL-STD-1553 protocol on FPGA and allows the system to be
configured as RT, BC or MT. This protocol is widely used in avionics especially the
modern day fighter aircrafts like F-16 and Mirage.
6

The project has been successfully completed and a prototype developed for it which
is ready for field testing or deployment in a system.
This project was funded by Higher Education Commission.
2- FPGA based Portable Spectrum Analyzer
FPGA based Spectrum Analyzer will be a signal analysis gadget with the maximum
input signal frequency of 100 MHz. The offshoots of the project include
Vibration Spectrum analysis in mechanical Testing
Video Spectrum Analysis for various defense and commercial applications
Spectral analysis of defense communications by Intel agencies
Lab usage by various universities and developers
3- FPGA Based Remotely Controlled Internet Enabled Digital Signage
System
FPGA based Remote Advertisement System will be connected to the internet
through which it will receive the configurations and data which will then be stored in
EEPROM. The system will then accesses this data, decode it and display it onto an
LCD monitor or an electronic billboard.

Sub Tab: SDR

Home

Professor Dr. N. D. Gohar at NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) has won
a grant of Rs. 14.66 million from ICT Research and Development Fund for the design
and development of a Software-Defined-Radio (SDR), using dynamically
reconfigurable resource array (DRRA) based Rapid Prototyping Platform. This
project, to be completed over a period of 4 years, aims to provide not only an NOCbased solution to SDR realization problem but also to develop research
infrastructure and skilled manpower in this cutting-edge research area. The
research and development stages will involve, besides three PhDs and six MS
students, a number of Bachelor students working on certain sub-modules of an SDR
as their final year projects. The successful design and development of a complete
Network on Chip-based platform will also enable SDR computations at mobile base
stations. In addition to ICT R&D Fund financial support, KTH will also provide Rs. 10
million for this project.
Software-Defined-Radio is a technology that is still in a state of infancy. The project
focuses on developing a Scalable, Flexible and Modular Radio Systems
Experimentation and Prototyping Platform (REXAPP) based on NOC (developed at
KTH, Sweden), to provide basic foundation for SDR digital processing-a step forward
in the development of future wireless communication systems.
The project has been
http://www.ictrdf.org.pk/.

funded

by

ICT

Proposal

Copy of proposal is available in Pages folder

7

Research

&

Development

Fund

Presentation

SDR presentation available in pages folder

Literature

SDR Literature is available in pages folder

Miscellaneous

SDR Miscellaneous is available in pages folder

Deliverables

SDR Deliverables are available in pages folder

Sub Tab: DAAC

Home
Digitally Assisted Analog Circuits is the latest research area that attempts to reduce
the increasing gap between the advancement of digital and analog integrated
circuits. During the last 15 years, increase in the performance of digital ICs has
become 150 times more than their analog counterparts. Since any real world
system must compose of analog components, slow advancement of analog
integrated circuits is now actually hindering the development of digital electronics.
If these trends continue to occur, this problem is likely to become worse in the near
future.
Digitally Assisted Analog Circuits is a recently proposed method that has
tremendous potential to nullify this effect. Basic idea is to simplify the analog
circuits at the cost of decreased precision. This loss in precision is then modeled and
compensated in the digital domain. Researchers in universities like Stanford and UC
Berkeley have already demonstrated the tremendous potential of this research
area.
The project aim is to apply this scheme in wireless technology and simplify the
analog circuitry of existing technology improving its performance parameters like
area, speed and power

Presentations

DAAC Presentations are available in pages folder

Literature

DAAC literature is available in pages folder

Tab 4 : Publications
Journal Papers

S. Baig, N. D. Gohar, Discrete Multi-Tone Transceiver at the Heart of PHY Layer of an

In-Home Powerline Communication Local Area Network, IEEE Communications
Magazine, pp. 48-53, April 2003.
S. A. Moiz, Kh. S. Karimov, N. D. Gohar, Orange Dye Thin Film Resistive
Hygrometers, Eurasian Chemical Technical Journal 6, 2004, pp. 201-205.
K. S. Karimov, K .M . Akhmedov, M. N. Khan, M. A. Saqib, N. D. Gohar, K. B. Khan, I.
Homidov, J. Valiev, Kh. Zakaullah, S. A. Moiz, "Thermoresistive Properties of Poly-NEpoxypropylcarbazole and Vanadium Pentoxide Composite", in Journal of Academy
of Sciences, Vol. XLVII, No. 9-10 (2004), Tajikistan.
Z. Rafique, N. D. Gohar, M. J. Mughal, Performance Comparison of OFDM and
WOFDM based V-BLAST Wireless Systems, IEICE Transaction on Communications,
Japan, Vol.E88-B, No.5, pp 2207-2209, May. 2005.
A. Latif, Nasir D. Gohar , Signal Properties of Hybrid LFSK Modulated MQAM (HQFM)
OFDM Transceiver International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security,
VOL.
07
No.
11,
ISSN1738-7906,
pp
72-76,
November
2007.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar , On the PAPR Reduction Properties of Hybrid QAM-FSK (HQFM)
OFDM Transceiver proceedings of International Journal of Applied Sciences , Vol.8,
pp 1061-1066, 2008
S. Rahman, RuhUllah, A. M. but and N. D. Gohar, Strategies of making TiO 2 and
ZnOvisible light active published in Journal of Hazardous Material,
pp 560-569,
volum170, 30 Oct 2009.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, Error Rate Performance of Hybird QAM-FSK in OFDM Systems
Exhibiting low PAPR published in journal of Science in China Series F: Information
Sciences, pages1875-1880 vol. 52, no. 10, (Oct 2009).
K. Aziz, N. D. Gohar, Network on-Chip Optical Interconnects Issues and
Challenges, published in NUST Journal of Engineering Science vol.2, No. 1, pp 13, ISSN 2070-9900, Dec 2009.
Conference Papers
N.D. Gohar, et. al., Microprocessor-based Real-Time, Density-Dependent, Traffic
Signal Controller, Third National Conference on Electronics, Islamabad, IROP, 1982.
N. D. Gohar, et. al., RACHANA: A Unified Layout Approach for CMOS Analog Cells,
European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD), pp 2981 2984,
Copenhagen, Denmark, Sep. 1991.
N. D. Gohar, et. al., RACHANA: An Integrated Placement and Routing Approach to
CMOS Analog Cells, IEEE ISCAS, San Diego, pp 2981-2984 USA, May 1992.
N. D. Gohar et. al., A New Schematic-Driven Floor-planning Algorithm for Analog
Cell Layout, IEEE ISCAS, Chicago, USA, May 1993.
9

N. D. Gohar, et. al., RAVI: A New Fast Area Routing Algorithm for Integrated
Placement and Routing Environment in Analog Cell Layout, European Conference
on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD), Davos, Switzerland, Aug-Sep. 1993.
N. D. Gohar, A New Schematic-Driven Approach for Analogue Cell Layout
Automation with Iterative Improvement, Special Seminar, UET, Lahore, Nov. 1993.
N. D. Gohar et. al. WAPDA Annual Confidential Report (ACR) System: Reasons Of Its
Failure and How To Improve The System, WAPDA Distribution Training Academy,
Research Report submitted as part of the Management Course Evaluation, March
1994.
N. D. Gohar, Upgrading EWR Speech Communication Network, IEEE TEM-4,
KFUPM, Dhahran, KSA, May 1997.
N. D. Gohar, Power Utilities in the Telecom and Other Energy-Related Businesses,
IEEE TEM-6, KFUPM, Dhahran, KSA,, April 1999.
N. D. Gohar, Y. Jamal, Features and Functionality of Power Application Software
(PAS) in EWR Upgraded EMS/SCADA System, IEEE TEM-2000, KFUPM, Dhahran,
KSA, April 2000.
N. D. Gohar, FPGA based ASIC Design Using Verilog HDL, an Invited Paper, IBCAST2002, Islamabad, IROP, July, 2002.
N. D. Gohar, S. Baig, Home Networking: Delivering Internet and Multi-Media from
Every Home-Plug, IEEE INMIC-2002, Karachi, IROP, Dec.27-28, 2002.
Y. Zafar, N. D. Gohar, Re-Configurable Computing Where it Stands now?, IEEE
INMIC-2002, Karachi, IROP, Dec.27-28, 2002.
Y. Zafar, N. D. Gohar, Self-Controlling Asynchronous Processor with Paging (SCAP),
IEEE INMIC-2002, Karachi, IROP, Dec.27-28, 2002.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, Peak-to-Average Power (PAPR) reduction in OFDM Systems,
IEEE INMIC-2002, Karachi, IROP, Dec.27-28, 2002.
S. Baig, N. D. Gohar, Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) Transceiver with Water-filling Bitloading Technique for in-home Power-Line Communication Networks, IEEE ISPLC
2003, Kyoto, Japan.
S. Baig, N.D. Gohar, Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) Transceiver for In-Home Power-Line
Communications, International Signal Processing Conference (ISPC)-2003, pp. 8489, Dallas, Texas USA.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, Reducing Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) in OFDM
Systems Using Partial Transmit Sequence and Selected Mapping, International
Signal Processing Conference (ISPC)-2003 at Dallas, Texas USA.

10

N. D. Gohar, Z. Rafique, V-Blast: A Space-Division Multiplexing Technique Providing

a Spectral Efficiency Necessary for High Data Rate Wireless Networks, Proceedings
of IBCAST-2003, Bhourbon, Islamabad, July 16-18, 2003.
S. Baig, N. D. Gohar "Discrete Multi-Tone Transceiver at the heart of PHY Layer of an
In-Home Powerline Communication Local Area Network", Communications Magazine,
IEEE , vol.41, no.4, pp. 48-53, April 2003.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, Current Challenges in the Design of Energy Efficient Ad Hoc
Wireless Networks, Proceedings of IBCAST-2003, Bhourbon, Islamabad, pp 263-280,
July 16-18, 2003.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, Reducing Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) Using Partial
Transmit Sequence in OFDM Systems, Proceedings of the 7 th IEEE INMIC-2003,
Islamabad, pp 126-130 Dec. 8-9, 2003.
S. Baig, N. D. Gohar, Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) Transceiver with Dynamic Rate
Adaptive Water-Filling Bit-Loading Technique for In-Home Power Line Communication
Networks, Proceedings of the 7th IEEE INMIC-2003, Islamabad, Dec. 8-9, 2003, pp.
84-89.
S. Moiz, KarimovKh.S., N. D. Gohar, Iqbal U., Electrical Characterization and
Parameters Estimation of Organic Semiconductor, Disperse Orange 25 (OD) Film at
Elevated Temperature, Proceedings of 8 th INMIC-2004, NUCES FAST, Lahore,
Pakistan, Dec. 24-26, 2004, pp.653-658.
S. Baig, N. D. Gohar, An Efficient Wavelet Based MC-CDMA Transceiver for Wireless
Communications, Proceedings of IBCAST-2005,pp 1-6, Bhourbon, Islamabad, June
16-18, 2005
A. Latif, B. N. D. Gohar, Performance Analysis of Wavelet Based Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (WOFDM) Technique in an AWGN Channel,
Proceedings of IBCAST-2005, Bhourbon, Islamabad, June 16-18, 2005.
Amir A. Khan, M. J. Mughal. N. D. Gohar, Electromagnetic Scanning using
Metamaterials, Proceedings of IBCAST-2005, Bhourbon, Islamabad, June 16-18,
2005.
M. T. Raza, H. M., N. D. Gohar, T. Khan, Z. H. Kamal, M. A. Fiddy, Distributive Target
Localization and Tracking in Sensor Networks, Proceedings of 3 rd International
Workshop of High-Speed Optical Networks and Enabling Technologies (HONET2006), UNCC, Charlotte, USA, September 6-8, 2006.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, A Hybrid MQAM-LFSK OFDM Transceiver with Low PAPR,
Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Wireless Communications,
Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCOM-2006), Wuhan, China, September 22-24,
pp 1-4, 2006.
A. Latif, N. D. Gohar, BER Performance Evaluation and PSD Analysis of NonCoherent Hybrid MQAM-LFSK OFDM Transmission System, Proceedings of
11

2ndInternational Conference on Emerging Technologies (ICET-2006), Peshawar,

November
13-14,
pp
53-59,
2006.
S. Ahmad., N. D. Gohar, A. Kamal,A Dynamic Congestion Control Mechanism for
Real-Time Streams over RTP, Proceedings of IEEE 9th Int. Conference on Advance
Communication Technologies, Pheonix Parks, Republic of Korea, pp 961 966, Feb.
2007.
K. Shahzad, A. Ali, N. D. Gohar, ESTP: An Energy-efficient time synchronization
protocol on wireless Sensor Networks published at 22nd IEEE AINA-2008
International Conference, pp 971-976.
J. S. Malik, A. Hemani and N. D. Gohar On the Design of Doppler Filters for Next
Generation Radio Channel Simulators published on 3 rd International Conference on
Signals, Circuits and System (SCS-09) Nov 6-8, pp 1-6, 2009 Tunisla.
J. S. Malik, A. Hemani and N. D. Gohar Impact of Interpolation Techniques on
Statistical Properties and Speed of Fading Channel Simulators, 6 th International
Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications (ICWMC 2010) Sep 20-25, pp
117- 124, 2010 Valencia, Spain.
J. S. Malik, B. Slimane, A. Hemani and N. D. Gohar Improving Performance of Fading
Channel Simulators by use of Uniformly Distributed published in international
conference IEEE ISSPIT 2010, pp 91-96, Luxor, Egypt.
J. S. Malik, J. N. Malik, A. Hemani, N. D. Gohar, "Generating High Tail
Accuracy Gaussian Random Numbers in Hardware Using Central Limit Theorem", In
IEEE, VLSI-SoC, pp 60-65, July 2011.
J. S. Malik, J. N. Malik, A. Hemani, N. D. Gohar, "An Efficient Hardware
Implementation of High Quality AWGN Generator Using Box-Muller Method", In IEEE,
ISCIT, pp 449-454, August 2011.

Tab 5: News & Events

A Seminar on "Waveform Processing Techniques for Software Defined Radio"

has been organized by SDR Team in SEECS Seminar Hall on 29th December,
2011. Download Presentation

Two research papers have been published in IEEE international conferences

held at Hong Kong and Hangzhou, China in 2011

Mr. Jameel Nawaz successfully completed his MS and has been appointed as a
faculty member at NUST-SEECS, EE Dept

Mr. Jamshaid Sarwar has successfully completed his time period in NUSTSEECS as a (PhD Student). He is in KTH, Sweden since August 2011 to
complete his thesis and Split PhD Program

12

Two research papers have been published in 2010 international conferences

Tab 6 : Collaborations
GRAF has collaboration with
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Department of Electronic Systems
Professor Ahmed Hemani
http://web.it.kth.se/~hemani/

Tab 7: Facilities/Inventory

13

MENTOR GRAPHIC S/W TOOLS

S/NO Package Name

Qty

Precision Synthesis

Analoge/Mix Sig

Calibre

Leonardo Spectrum

ModelSim SE

Formal Pro

IC Flow Products

HDL Designer Series

Design for Test

10

Expedition Flow

11

Vendor Independent Flow

12

O-In

13

Board Station Flow

19

14

Time-it V1.2 1.0

15

IC Flow 2006.1

16

Questa SV/FV

17

System Architect

18

Questa Code Link Pro 2.0b

19

Seamless CVE

16

20

Visual Elite - MD

21

Perspecta 3.2.3

22

Perspecta ARMfam 3.2.1

23
24

I/O Designer
ICX & TAU

3
3

25

Icanalyst

26

inFact

27

Platform Express

28

Bridge Point

29

XlibCreator 2008a

30

System Vision 5.2 Professional

31
32

Model Builder / Vista

Seamless FPGA 5.5 2008.1

2
1

14

Tab 8: Training

A seminar on Waveform Processing Techniques for Software Defined Radio

was organized by SDR team on 29th Dec, 2011 at SEECS seminar Hall. Guest
speaker was Dr. Jamil Ahmad, Director at Radiosoft Ltd (UK)

Three day workshop on "RF ASIC Design" held on 5th - 7th January 2009 at
NUST-SEECS. The guest speaker was Mr. Jamshaid Sarwar Malik. The
workshop was attended by the senior students of BICSE.

One day workshop on PCB Design Using OrCAD held on 16th January, 2008 at
Seminar Hall, NIIT Rawalpindi.

Two day international Workshop on SoCware Design for Communication

Systems held on 7th & 8th June 2007 at Seminar Hall, NIIT Rawalpindi.

One day workshop on PCB Design and Manufacturing held on 6th November,
2006 at Seminar Hall, NIIT Rawalpindi.

Tab 9: Contact us
Postal Address:
Group for Research in ASIC and FPGA (GRAF)
C/O NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS),
NUST Campus,Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Phone: +92-51-9085 2086
http://cefar.seecs.nust.edu.pk/
Contact Person
Prof. Dr. N. D. Gohar
Professor EE Dept
NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS),
H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-9085 2263
Email: nasir.gohar@seecs.edu.pk
URL: http://seecs.nust.edu.pk/faculty/ndgohar.html

15