Supply of Channel Emulator.

Descriptions

Background Information.The Communication Systems and Network Group at the University of Bristol combines fundamental academic research with a strong level of industrial application in the area of wireless communications. The Group has well-equipped laboratories with state-of-the-art test and measurement equipment and first-class computational facilities. For more than 25 years the Group has worked alongside industry to develop and exploit key connectivity technologies. Examples include: Bandwidth efficient modulation and coding; Smart antenna solutions; Efficient linear power amplifiers; Flexible RF transceivers; High-throughput wireless LANs; Multiple antenna (MIMO) architectures & algorithms; Vehicular and Car-2-car communications, Green radio and mmWave communications.Funding has been awarded by the UK EPSRC (Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council) to replace our existing wireless channel emulator with state-of-the-art equipment and specifications aligned to waveforms for 5G and beyond (2020+) wireless connectivity.Reliable end-to-end, spectrum and energy efficient wireless access necessitates the co-design of the physical layer (PHY), medium access control (MAC) and the core network. Although computer simulation plays an important role in the design and optimisation of such systems, given the complexity of modern networks hardware-in-the-loop and the use of channel emulation provides a vital insight to system behaviour and allows rigorous testing of algorithms, real-time optimisation of parameters (including cross layer operations) and RF system components.Current Situation.The University of Bristol have made extensive use of a pair of Elektrobit C8 channel emulators purchased through SRIF SEMANTIC funding some 10 years ago. It is proposed here to replace this facility (16 x 33 MHz simplex channels with limited memory and Doppler processing) with a state-of-the-art multi-channel (8 x 8 FDD duplex) wideband (160MHz) wireless. This will support channel bandwidths commensurate with the evolving trends in communication system waveform design and is capable of reproducing highly dynamically varying channels (Doppler aka high speed trains).The Objective.The selected equipment should support communication networking research and address crosscutting challenges of transmission, switching, optimization and control of wireless access also within the context of SDN and vehicular communications.The specifc mandatory and desirable characteristics of the system required are detailed in the Invitation to Tender document.As set out in II.2, the estimated duration of the contract is a minimum of 12 months, and maximum of 60 months. The University of Bristol is carrying out the procurement on behalf of itself as principal and it is not envisaged that any other person(s) or body shall have access to the contract.