Bit error analysis of new generation wireless transceivers

Abstract

There has been a spurt of activity in the development of digital wireless transceivers especially those operating in the ISM (industry scientific medical) bands. This is attributed to the fact that wireless systems have become more reliable, compact and easy to develop than ever before, leading to a well-perceived ubiquity. Most manufacturers do not document the error related performance and characteristics of their devices, thus entailing a detailed analysis by the developer or the user. We highlight tests to measure the bit error related performance of these new generation transceivers, with special emphasis on the TRF 6900A transceiver from Texas Instruments, a popular binary FSK (frequency shift keying) device. The test bed consists of a wireless modem based on the transceiver, and a personal computer executing a 'C' language code for baseband control and data source-sink, in order to test the device in various configurations and conditions. Our test analyses bit error rate and tries to highlight its relationship to various parameters such as attenuation, interference, occlusions, and modulation index, which in turn helps to evaluate the performance of a wireless device. This method can be easily extended to evaluate various other similar wireless transceivers offered in the market.