About Creating Designs for Connected Solutions

Using ADS Ptolemy, a system designer can create an ADS Connected Solutions (CS) design. This documentation describes how to create and verify the CS design. It is important for you to follow the process described in this documentation when building a design so the schematic will perform well with the established links to Agilent Technologies instruments for stimulus-response hardware testing.

This chapter introduces the process to create connected solutions designs, lists the system requirements, and summarizes predefined templates available in ADS.

Overview

The motivation to create and use ADS Ptolemy schematic designs as Connected Solutions designs is to provide an easy way to create custom CS designs in ADS. The following terminology is used in discussions about ADS Ptolemy and CS designs:

ADS refers to the Advanced Design System product.
Connected Solutions (CS) is the combination of ADS and Agilent instruments to achieve interoperability between real hardware and ADS simulations.
CS designs refer to DSP Schematic Connected Solutions designs in the ADS product.

You will learn an easy process to create CS designs, which has these benefits:

Within a design, subnetwork schematics are categorized into two types:
- Generic: common portion for all designs.
- Specific: technology-specific design content.
Designs and their associated data displays can be created using templates provided in ADS:
- Generic templates can be used directly.
- Templates can be customized with their sources, channel, and measurements of their own specific design.
- The templates provide generic links to instruments.
- Customizing the design templates reduces your overall development effort, quality assurance effort, and test time with instruments.

The CS design provides connection to an RF hardware device under test (DUT) to determine the DUT's performance by activating various schematic measurements. This schematic provides signal measurements for RF envelope, signal power (including CCDF), spectrum, and more.

The signal and most measurements are designed according to specific wireless formats. The schematic is designed to generate an RF modulated signal with optional impairments, send the signal to the input of the RF DUT through an Agilent instrument, receive the signal from the RF DUT output through an Agilent instrument, and display the measurement results in a data display.

Example design projects are located in the ADS installation area in the following folder: $HPEESOF_DIR/examples/Connected_Solutions, and are described in Example Design Templates.

The top-level designs located in these projects demonstrate schematics for general transmission and BER testing per WLAN 802.11a/b/g standards.

System Requirements

Recommended system requirements to create CS designs include:

PC with Windows 2000 Professional SP4 or Windows XP Professional SP2
1 GB RAM minimum
Pentium 4 minimum

Required Licenses

The basic licenses required to create CS designs are those for:

ADS schematic and data display
ADS Ptolemy simulator
Antennas and propagation library
Connection Manager

Licenses are also required for any DSP Schematic models that are licensed features.

The WLAN 802.11a/b/g Design Library license is required for designs that include WLAN 802.11a/b/g models. For example, this license is required for simulating designs in the STW_E4438C_896XX_prj.
The WMAN 802.16e Design Library license is required for designs that include WLAN 802.16e models. For example, this license is required for simulating designs in STW_WMAN_16e_OFDMA_Downlink_prj and STW_WMAN_16e_OFDMA_Uplink_prj.
Other ADS Ptolemy licenses are dependant on the models used.

Design Process Summary

To create a CS design in ADS, you will usually follow the process summarized in this section. Before you start developing a CS design, define your design goals. Then, to begin creating a CS design, open a schematic window in ADS and use the menu Tools > Connected Solutions Workbench Tool . This menu item opens a window presenting you with options to

Create Test Workbench
Create Data Display

Typically, you should follow these steps to complete your design:

Consider the design goals
- Define the hardware test objectives
- Review existing ADS design templates
- Define the signal source and measurement objectives
- Define the data display objectives
Start with a CS Design Template
- Launch ADS
- Load a CS Design Template
- Open the Design
Create the Source Design
- Push into the source design
- Replace the template baseband source
- Replace the template multipath
- Replace the template measurements
- Save the new source design
Create the Measurement Design
- Push into the measurement design
- Replace the template measurements
- Save the new measurement design
Create the Range Check Design
- Push into the range check design
- Edit the VarEqnCheck components
- Save the new range check design
Save the Top Level Design
- Edit specific Vars
- Save the new design
Create Data Displays
- Load the data display template
- Modify from the template
- Insert the new template
- Save the new template
Verify the CS Design
- Run the simulation for different settings
- Connect to ESGc,VSA, and DUT, then test it

Each step is discussed in detail in the following locations:

Design Preparations
Creating a Connected Solutions Design
Creating Data Displays
Verifying a Connected Solutions Design

Design Preparations

Consider the following topics before starting on your design, and during its development:
Define your hardware test objectives.

Will the CS design template provide you with the hardware test capability you want?
- If yes, then use the templates for your application.
- If no, then modify the templates for your application.
For your custom CS design, can you use the instrument links available within the design templates supplied with ADS?
- If yes, then use the templates for your application.
- If no, then contact Agilent EEsof Solution Services and request help in creating custom CS designs that use the instrument links you prefer.

Review the existing ADS design templates. See the list of available templates in the section Predefined Design Templates.

Which one is closest to your design intent and can serve as your starting point?
- If the templates are suitable to serve as your starting point, then use the templates for your application.
- If not, then contact Agilent EEsof Solution Services and request help in creating custom CS designs for your application.

Define your signal source and measurement objectives.

Can you create your desired signal source and measurements from existing ADS Ptolemy components and subnetworks?
- If yes, then define your signal source and measurement objectives.
- If not, and you need custom models, then contact Agilent EEsof Solution Services to request help in creating custom models for your application.
Identify the source and measurement parameters needed for your source.
Identify the source and measurement parameters you want to make available in the CS design.

Define your data display objectives.

Can you create your desired data display from existing ADS Data Display templates?
- If yes, then define your data display objectives.
- If not and you need custom data displays, then contact Agilent EEsof Solution Services and request help in creating custom data displays for your application.

Predefined Design Templates

To help you get started creating CS designs, the following templates are available as ADS examples for you to use. For details about each of the examples, see Example Design Templates.

WLAN 802.11a/g Designs

ADS example project is located in:	$HPEESOF_DIR/Connected_Solutions/STW_E4438C_896XX_TX
This design is defined for use with Agilent ESG and VSA instruments:	STW_E4438C_896XX_TX (WLAN 802.11a/g Transmission Test Design)
This design is defined for use with either Agilent ESG and VSA instruments; or, Agilent ESG and Logic Analyzer instruments, and Agilent VSA software:	STW_E4438C_896XX_RX (WLAN 802.11a/g BER Test Design)

WiMax 16e Designs

ADS example project is located in:	$HPEESOF_DIR/Connected_Solutions/ STW_WMAN_16e_OFDMA_Downlink_prj
This design is defined for use with Agilent ESG and VSA instruments:	STW_WMAN_802_16e_DL_TX (WiMax 802.16e Down Link Transmission Test Design)
This design is defined for use with either Agilent ESG and VSA instruments; or, Agilent ESG and Logic Analyzer instruments, and Agilent VSA software:	STW_WMAN_802_16e_DL_RX (WiMax 802.16e Down Link BER Test Design)
ADS example project is located in:	$HPEESOF_DIR/Connected_Solutions/ STW_WMAN_16e_OFDMA_Uplink_prj
This design is defined for use with Agilent ESG and VSA instruments:	STW_WMAN_802_16e_UL_TX (WiMax 802.16e Up Link Transmission Test Design)
This design is defined for use with either Agilent ESG and VSA instruments; or, Agilent ESG and Logic Analyzer instruments, and Agilent VSA software:	STW_WMAN_802_16e_UL_RX (WiMax 802.16e Up Link BER Test Design)

MATLAB Designs

ADS example project is located in:	$HPEESOF_DIR/Connected_Solutions/STW_MATLAB_prj
This design is defined for use with Agilent ESG and VSA instruments:	STW_MATLAB_ESG_VSA (MATLAB Test Design)