Partial reconfiguration in the implementation of autonomous radio receivers for space

Abstract

In space mission there are different scenarios where autonomous radio systems are very useful. In this paper we consider one of such scenarios, related to the communication infrastructure for the planet exploration. The basic idea is to obtain significant advantages in autonomous radio receiver implementation by using FPGA dynamic partial reconfiguration. Implementing the most significant part of the radio, we will show as this techniques can be used and what are the advantages we can obtain. In particular, by using this design methodology system complexity and power consumption is reduced improving the overall system reliability (mainly, in relation to possible SEU induced by ions in the configuration memory).