1
Physical Layer Implementation of IEEE 802.11a
using SDR
Sameeha Bhende1 Aishwarya Acharekar2 Chetan Nehete3
Abstract—Communication is an integral part of human life.
The everyday electronic appliances are also becoming smarter
and require the use of wireless communication. Each new
telecommunication technology has different frequency and mod-
ulation requirements and thus demands for a new hardware. This
paper focuses on the use of Software Defined Radios (SDR) and
its applications in wireless telecommunication. The necessity of a
new hardware for a new wireless technology could be curbed with
the help of SDRs. This paper gives an idea about transmission
and reception of data signals with the help of IEEE 802.11a which
is the simplest Wi-Fi standard implemented on a standalone SDR
platform. IEEE 802.11a uses OFDM. The paper also compares
different modulation schemes for OFDM including BPSK, QPSK
and 8-PSK and the best suitable technique for the given setup.
The main idea is to promote reduction of electronic waste which
could be achieved with the help of increase in SDR incorporated
devices.
Index Terms—SDR, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex-
ing, Wi-Fi, QPSK.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Reconfigurability in a radio system is not a new concept.
Reconfigurable receivers were developed for radio intelligence
in the short wave range during the early 1980s. They included
many interesting features such as automatic recognition of the
modulation mode of a received signal or bit stream analysis.
Reconfigurability became familiar to many radio developers
with the publication of the special issue on software radios of
the IEEE Communication Magazine in May 1995.[1]
A transceiver may be spoken as a Software-Defined Radio
(SDR) if its communication functions are realised as programs
running on an acceptable processor. Utilizing an equivalent
hardware setup, completely different transmitter and receiver
algorithms, typically describing the transmission standards,
is enforced in software package. SDR can be described as
a wireless communication device wherever the receiver and
transmitter practicality can be modified by software with no
physical changes created to the hardware. SDR was born out
of the concept that radio tuners and filters may be replaced
by software package. This eliminates the necessity for mis-
treatment of resistors and capacitors as software-based filter-
ing algorithms is used to pick specific frequencies. Though
there’s still a desire of a versatile hardware platform, there
are tremendous developments in their styles. The algorithms
1 Final Year Student of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering,
Sadar Patel Institute of Technology (e-mail: sameeha.bhende@gmail.com)
2 Final Year Student of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering,
Sadar Patel Institute of Technology (e-mail: ashuuacharekar@gmail.com)
3 Final Year Student of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering,
Sadar Patel Institute of Technology (e-mail: cmnehete123@gmail.com)
are each downloadable and adaptable over the lifetime of
the radio hardware. This makes SDR infinitely versatile and
inexpensive.
SDR was originally adopted and promoted by the military,
however in recent years it’s evolved to become commercially
offered for multiple applications like public safety, astronomy,
transportation, etc. Software-Defined Radio nowadays will
plenty over simply knowledge and voice transmission. From
ancient two-way communication, SDR has grown to possess
the potential to be incorporated into cellphones, Wi-Fi routers,
TVs, police radios, garage door openers, laptop computer and
aeronautical communications devices.
The static nature of conventional hardware radios gives them
several limitations. The need of different hardware setups for
each radio technology can use considerable amount of space,
usually if a particular setup needs several different radio tech-
nologies. Second, implementing separate hardware protocols
may become costly to systems needing to use many different
radio standards. Cellular phone technology provides a key
example of this phenomenon. In cellular or mobile technology,
even though nations have attempted to standardize the radio
protocol, cell phones still need to support old standards which
are still in use and alternate standards in different regions so
that a single phone can operate in many locations. Cell phones
have separate physical systems for each communication stan-
dard due to current hardware limitations which increases both
the size and cost of cell phones. Hardware radios are not
easily updated when new technology is developed, an example
is evolution of 4G from existing 3G standard.[2] Due to the
ever evolving research and technologies in the field of radio
communication, the present radio technology could fade in
future. Keeping this in mind, the concept of developing the
radio technology on a computer was formed. Earlier the trial
and testing of the new radio technology was done directly on
hardware which proved to be very costly. In order to avoid this,
SDR was developed which could test the new technology on
software first which was less risky and less costly. It was then
implemented on the hardware for which FPGA is used which
gives us programming flexibility and power efficiency.[3]
This paper proposes an implementation of one of the
most widely used wireless technology, Wi-Fi based on IEEE
802.11 standards on an SDR platform. Each IEEE 802.11
standard (a,b,g,n) has different modulation and spread spec-
trum techniques. Though Wi-Fi utilizes the ISM band, these
standards have different operating frequencies and speeds of
transmission. Thus an SDR setup helps to implement all
these standards in a single hardware setup. We make use
of ADFMCOMMS4-EBZ RF platform provided by Analog

Devices and ZedBoard, a Xilinx FPGA platform together
to build the SDR system. An important application of Wi-
Fi is a wireless router, SDN or Software Defined Networks
is an emerging architecture that is dynamic, manageable,
cost-effective and adaptable, making it ideal for the high-
bandwidth, dynamic nature of todays network applications.
The network control becomes directly programmable employ-
ing such architecture. Since, the number devices connected to
the internet are on the rise, dynamic networking is the need
of the hour. A wireless router could be designed on the basis
of SDN.[4][5]
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
The idea of the proposed SDR System can be seen in [fig 1].
The RF Platform, ADFMCOMMS4-EBZ is used to transmit
and receive frequencies that the board is tuned to. Proper
modulation and demodulation techniques need to be followed
to design the SDR. At the next stage, Zed Board which is an
FPGA is used to interface the platform with the PC to view
the results and graphs on the display. We make use of GNU
Radio Companion to implement Wi-Fi standards and transmit
data through this.
Fig. 1: Proposed System model
III. H ARDWARE AND S OFTWARE D ESCRIPTION
A. Hardware
Hardware consists of two platforms, the RF platform and the
FPGA platform. ADFMCOMMS4-EBZ[6] is the RF module
provided by Analog Devices [7]. ZED Board[8] is the FPGA
platform provided by Xilinx[9].
1) AD-FMCOMMS4-EBZ Specifications:
• Frequency Range: 70MHz to 6GHz
• Output Power: 7.5dBm
• Number of transmitting channels: 2
• Number of receiving channels: 2
• Integrated circuits: Filters, PLL, LNA, VCO, ADC, DAC
• Sensitivity/Noise Figure: Superior with 2.5dB
2) ZedBoard Specifications:
• Processor: Zynq-7000 AP SoC XC7Z020-CLG484-1
• Memory: 512 MB DDR3, 256Mb Quad-SPI Flash, 4GB
SD card
• Display: HDMI output supporting 1080p60 with 16-bit,
YCbCr, 4:2:2 mode colour, VGA output (12-bit resolution
colour), 128x32 OLED display
• Clocking: 33.33333 MHz clock source for PS, 100 MHz
oscillator for PL
2
• General Purpose I/O: 8 user LEDs , 7 push buttons, 8
DIP switches
• Conguration and Debug: Onboard USB-JTAG interface,
Xilinx Platform Cable JTAG connector
B. Software
1) GNU Radio Companion: GNU Radio
Companion(GRC)[10] is a free open source software
development toolkit. It is generally used for simulation
purpose and implementing software defined radios and signal
processing systems. It is easy to use and has a graphical
user interface. We require to install two main blocks for
interfacing our hardware with GRC. They are sink and source
for FMCOMMS4 hardware. They are used to implement a
transmission and reception system for the SDR.
Fig. 2: FMCOMMS4 Source and Sink in GRC
2) IIOScope: The IIOScope[11] is a software that sup-
ports plotting of the captured data in four different modes
namely time domain, frequency domain, constellation and
cross-correlation. It also allows to view and modify several
settings of the evaluation boards devices. It is analogous to
digital oscilloscope and helps display and measure waveforms
directly through the PC display.
IV. I MPLEMENTATION
A. Interfacing the boards
The two boards first need to be interfaced with each other.
The actual setup is shown in [fig 3]. The setup needs an
ethernet connection. The PC and the SDR setup need to be on
the same network for proper working.
Once the two boards are properly interfaced, IIO Scope
software is used to check whether the SDR is in working
condition. A simple GRC program can be implemented first.
IP address of the board is needed to configure the IIO Scope as
well as GRC. The output graphs for simulated GRC program
and actual hardware implemented output graphs show peaks
at 1MHz indicating that the SDR has been interfaced correctly
and is in working condition.
B. Physical layer implementation of WIFI
Wi-Fi is a technology for WLAN and the devices are based
on th IEEE 802.11 standards. This paper describes the imple-
mentation of IEEE 802.11a standard [12]. This standard makes
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Fig. 3: System Setup

use of OFDM or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

communication system. It works in the frequency bands of Fig. 4: Software output on GRC
5GHz and 3.7GHz. The total bandwidth is of 20MHz and
occupied bandwidth is of 16.6MHz. The transmission rates
go upto 54 Mbps. This standard is less prone to interference
than 802.11b standard.
OFDM [13] is a method of encoding digital data on multiple
carrier frequencies. Each sub-carrier (signal) is modulated with
a conventional modulation scheme (such as BPSK, QPSK,
QAM, etc.) at a low symbol rate. This maintains total data rates
similar to conventional single-carrier modulation schemes in
the same bandwidth. OFDM proves advantageous over single-
carrier schemes because of its ability to cope with severe chan-
nel conditions like attenuation of high frequencies, narrowband
interference and frequency-selective fading due to multipath.
The basic algorithm for physical layer implementation of
Wi-Fi can be explained as follows: Fig. 5: Hardware output on IIOScope
1) Sample the audio wave appropriately depending upon
the frequencies present in the signal.
2) Modulate the sampled signal depending upon the mod- 2) Frequency Domain Display of unmodulated data: An
ulation technique selected. audio signal was modulated and transmitted through the
3) Encode the modulated carrier with the help of OFDM transmitting antenna of the SDR. [Fig 6] shows the
mod block. frequency domain display of the actual unmodulated
4) Set appropriate cyclic prefix length, payload length, FFT audio data.
size, frequency and bandwidth.
5) Repeat the same for OFDM demodulation block.
6) Resample the the demodulated data to obtain audio
signal at the output.
Codes for three different types of modulation techniques -
BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK were implemented. The outputs for all
Fig. 6: Original unmodulated audio signal
these modulation techniques were compared and the best suit-
able option for transmission was considered. The parameters
that need to be considered are Bit Errror Rate, Data rate, 3) OFDM Transmitted Data: The frequency plot of the
transmission losses, gain, stability, noise level, etc OFDM modulated transmitted data is shown in [Fig 7].
Since OFDM uses multiple sub-carriers within the same
channel, its output spectra is seen with sinc function
V. R ESULTS AND DISCUSSION side-lobes and closely spaced overlapping sub-carrier
1) Comparison between software simulated and actual SDR peaks in the center.
output in IIOScope: [Fig 4] shows the GRC waveform 4) OFDM Received Data: The frequency plot of the OFDM
and [Fig 5] shows the actual hardware results. The two modulated received data is shown in [Fig 8]. The plot
peaks in the frequency domain display in both these is almost similar to the transmitted data plot. A few
results indicates that the SDR correctly transmits and differences are present in the side-lobes. This indicates
receives data. some amount of noise introduced while transmitting the

Fig. 7: OFDM Transmitted audio data
data. The power in dB levels has dropped by about 2dB.
Fig. 8: OFDM Received audio data
5) Constellation Plots: GRC also allows for displaying
constellation plots. [Fig 9] shows the transmitted and
received signal constellation plots respectively. It was
observed that, as compared to the transmitted signal con-
stellation, the received constellation was more scattered.
This mainly defines the small amount of noise (about
2dB) that was heard in the received audio. The similarity
in the shape of both the constellation plots ensures that
the audio was received successfully.
Fig. 9: Transmitted and Received Constellation Plots
6) Although some hardware impairments such as less preci-
sion antennas, environmental conditions and other Wi-Fi
signals available in the vicinity influence the quality of
audio received, it was ensured that this SDR setup is
capable of implementing WIFI standard 802.11a.
Fig. 10: BER for BPSK
Just by changing the modulation technique and operating
frequency, bandwidth, etc, other WIFI standards can be
4
Fig. 11: BER for QPSK
Fig. 12: BER for 8PSK
implemented which ultimately defines the SDR concept.
Initially, OFDM was implemented using QPSK modula-
tion. To improve the quality of reception, changing the
modulation technique proves beneficial. A comparison
between various modulations and its effect on the re-
ception of audio file is specified as follows:
a) It was observed from the BER calculations that
out of BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, QPSK or Quadrature
Phase Shift Keying was the best suitable modula-
tion technique for OFDM.
b) BER is Bit Error Rate. For transmission with
minimum errors the value of bit error rate must be
small. BER gives the percent change in the number
of bits due to some disturbance in the channel.
Ideally the value of BER must be zero. The values
of BER obtained for this setup are as follows.
TABLE I: BER for different modulation schemes
M-ary value Modulation Bit Error Rate
(M) (BER%)
2 BPSK 0.6235
4 QPSK 1.0895
8 8 PSK 2.2381
c) Thus it is observed from the above table that the
value of BER increases with the increase in the M-
ary value. This means that as the number of bits
per symbol in the transmitted data increases the
error rate increases. This means that ideally BPSK
is the best form of modulation since the BER value
is least.
d) But it was also observed that the data rate for
QPSK was higher than BPSK.
e) Thus there is a trade-off between bit error rate and
data rate. So it can be concluded that the best type
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of modulation scheme is QPSK, since its data rate R EFERENCES

is high but BER is also comparatively lower than
the higher modulation schemes.
f) Other advantages of QPSK are that,though, QPSK
requires an SNR greater than BPSK, it is seen
that for transmission in shorter ranges their SNR
requirement is almost same.
g) In order to increase the data rates if higher order
modulation schemes like Though, 16-PSK, 16-
QAM, 64-QAM, etc are used, they require a higher
FFT size and this slows down the PC.
VI. F UTURE WORK
WIFI is just one of the many applications that this SDR
module can demonstrate.
1) This SDR prototype can be used to implement other
WIFI standards, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc by appropriate
changes in the software code.The board can also be
programmed to work as a Wi-Fi router which implants
the idea of Software Defined Networking.
2) The concept of SDN has a wide scope once SDR is
implemented practically. Software-defined networking
(SDN) is beginning to make its mark in the network-
ing space. Software-defined networks are recognized
for their flexibility. Various network elements can be
updated using just the software.
3) GNS3 software can be used to implement this type of
SDN based router.
[1] J. Mitola, ”The software radio architecture”, IEEE Communication
Magazine, Vol. 33, No. 5, (May 1995): 26-38.
[2] Harold A. Haldren, ”Studies in Software-Defined Radio System Imple-
mentation”, Senior Thesis Honors Program, Liberty University, 2014
[3] Cummings.M, Haruyama.S, FPGA in the software radio, Communica-
tions Magazines. IEEE, 1999, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 108-112.
[4] Jian-Quan Wang, Chang Cao, Haijing Fu, ”Software Defined Network-
ing for Telecom Operators: Architecture and Applications”; 2013 8th
International Conference on Communications and Networking in China
(CHINACOM), Pages: 827-831
[5] Open Networking Foundation [Online]. [cited 2018 Jan 18]; Available
from: URL:http://www.opennetworking.org/sdn-definition/.
[6] ADFMCOMMS4-EBZ, Analog Devices [Online]. [cited 2017
Aug 30]; Available from: URL:http://www.analog.com/en/design-
center/evaluation-hardware-and-software/evaluation-boards-kits/eval-
ad-fmcomms4-ebz.html
[7] Analog Devices [Online]. [cited 2017 Sept 12]; Available from:
URL:http://www.analog.com
[8] Zed Board [Online]. [cited 2017 Aug 30]; Available from:
URL:http://zedboard.org/product/zedboard.
[9] Xilinx All Programmable [Online]. [cited 2017 Aug 31]; Available
from: URL:https://www.xilinx.com/
[10] GNU Radio Companion [Online]. [cited 2017 June 29]; Available from:
URL:https://wiki.gnuradio.org/
[11] IIO Oscilloscope [Online]. [cited 2017 Sept 19]; Available
from: URL:https://wiki.analog.com/resources/tools-software/linux-
software/iio oscilloscope
[12] Ramia Babiker Mohammed Abdelrahman, Amin Babiker A. Mustafa,
Ashraf A. Osman, ” Comparison between IEEE 802.11a, b, g, n and
ac Standards”, IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE),
vol. 17, no. 5, Oct-2015, pp. 26-29.
[13] Gul Zameen Khan, Ruben Gonzales, Xin-Wen Wu, Eun-Chan Park,
”On the Field Level Loss of a VHT PPDU in a MIMO-OFDM System
for a WiFi Direct 802.11ac WLAN”, 2016 International Conference on
Frontiers of Information Technology, IEEE Computer Society.

VII. C ONCLUSION
The developed SDR module thus ensures proper transmis-
sion and reception of data. Applications can switch between a
wide range of frequencies. The module provides a prototype
of a device that can act differently in various frequency bands.
The given setup was able to transmit audio data with the least
amount of error using QPSK based OFDM. These errors could
be further reduced by using better precision antennas.
With the increase in technological advancements the amount
of e-waste generated annually has exponentially increased.
The dismantling of these wastes cause liquid and atmospheric
releases which end up in bodies of water, groundwater, soil,
and air and therefore in land and sea animal. This innovative
concept of SDR could help reduce said e-waste. If all the
devices could incorporate such an SDR system, the need for
manufacturing different hardware for different applications
could be reduced, thereby reducing e-waste.

VIII. ACKNOWLEGEMENT
We thank Sardar Patel Institute of Technology for providing
us the required resources and space to work on this project.
We also want to thank our project guide, Prof. Dayanand
Ambawade, for constantly guiding us to bring our project
to the stage it is. We would also like to thank Mrs Leena
Govekar and Prof. Venkatramanan for their extended support
and thoughtful advice.