A Lightweight Dataflow Approach for Design and Implementation of SDR Systems

Model-based design methods based on dataflow models of computation are attractive for design and implementation of wireless communication systems because of their intuitive correspondence to communication system block diagrams, and the formal structure that is exposed through formal dataflow representations (e.g., see [2]). In this paper, we introduce a novel lightweight dataflow (LWDF) programming model for model-based design and implementation of wireless communication and software-defined radio systems. The approach is suitable for improving the productivity of the design process; the agility with which designs can be retargeted across different platforms; and the quality of derived implementations. By “lightweight”, we meant that the programming model is designed to be minimally intrusive on existing design processes, and require minimal dependence on specialized tools or libraries. This allows designers to integrate and experiment with dataflow modeling approaches relatively quickly and flexibly into existing design methodologies and processes.