SOUP: Advanced SDR platform for 5G communication

Abstract

A lot of new concept of 5G needs to be verified with a real hardware platform. In this paper, we developed Software Universal Platform (SOUP), a flexible and powerful software-defined radio (SDR) platform that can be used to implement novel 5G communication concepts. SOUP can be combined with a general-purpose processor (GPP) system which presents programmability and flexibility. The SOUP hardware consists of a radio-frequency (RF) radio unit, which receives and transmits radio frequency signal, and a baseband processor board, which provides high-throughput, low-latency data transfer between the RF unit and the PC. With rich expansion interface, SOUP exhibits agile signal processing and expansion capability. Our latest RF unit can provide an air interface bandwidth of 100 MHz. Multiple channel system design allows the SOUP to be easily extended to MIMO system. Using SOUP, we implemented the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) prototype and wireless video transmission.