Design Issues for Multi-Mode Multi-Standard Transceivers

Abstract

Multi-mode and multi-band transceivers, i.e., transceivers with the capability to operate in different frequency bands and to support different waveforms and signaling schemes, are objects of intense study. In fact, hardware reuse among different standards would help to reduce production costs, power consumption, and to increase the integration level of a given implementation. The design of such transceivers is indeed very complex, because it not only implies the choice of the architecture more suitable for the target application, but also the choice and the design of reconfigurable building blocks to perform tuning among the different standards and signaling schemes. In addition, different standards may have considerably different requirements in terms of receiver sensitivity, linearity, input dynamic range, error vector magnitude (EVM), signal bandwidth, and data rate, which in turn make the design of a multi-mode reconfigurable transceiver a very challenging task. In this chapter, the authors present the most common techniques and architecture schemes used in modern wireless communication systems supporting standards for cellular, wireless local area networks (WLAN), and wireless personal area networks (WPAN), i.e., GSM, WCDMA, IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee), and IEEE 802.15.3 (UWB). State-of-the-art techniques for multi-standard cellular, WLAN, and WPAN transceivers are thoroughly analyzed and reviewed with special emphasis on those relying on bandpass sampling and multi-rate signal processing schemes.