5 days STTP on “5G Wireless Communications and Antenna Design using MATLAB and Simulink”
With an objective of providing an exposure to fundamentals of MATLAB and Simulink for Computation, Signal Processing, Hardware Interfacing, Antenna design and design of 5G Wireless Technologies, a 5 day online short term training programme titled “5G Wireless Communication and Antenna Design using MATLAB and Simulink” was organized on 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th and 25th August 2020, by DBCE Student satellite Club-PARIKRAMA in association with IEEE Students branch, technically sponsored by IEEE Bombay Section WIE (Women in Engineering) Affinity Group.
The short-term training was attended by researchers, academicians, industry professionals, and students not only from India but also from all around the world. A total of 817 participants registered, out of which 184 were International participants. The sessions were organized via online platform and the resource persons were: Mr. Suraj Gawande, Senior Application Engineer, DesignTech systems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Uvaraj Natarajan, Senior Application Engineer, Wireless Communications at MathWorks India Pvt. Ltd.
Day 1 – 11th August 2020:
On 11th of August, the STTP commenced with an introductory welcome by Prof. Deron Rodrigues, followed by the welcome address by our director, Rev. Fr. Kinley D’Cruz and a short message from our principal, Dr. Neena Panandikar.
The speaker for the day, Mr. Suraj Gawande was introduced, after which he delivered a session on Fundamentals of MATLAB– the language of technical computing. This session covered ‘Introduction to MATHWORKS Product Family’, ‘From raw data to actionable insights with MATLAB Analytics’, ‘Toolboxes used in MATLAB’ etc. MATLAB R2020b was introduced and working with MATLAB user interface was demonstrated. Subsequently, entering commands, creating variables, analyzing, and visualizing vectors and matrices, working with data files and data types, automating commands with scripts, writing programs with branching and loops, writing functions, and plotting graphs in MATLAB was demonstrated.
Day 2 – 12th August 2020
Introduction to Simulink Fundamentals was the session for 12th August 2020 and it was delivered by Mr. Suraj Gawande. Introducing Simulation and Model based design using Simulink, the resource person provided a detailed description about Simulink Graphical Environment. He further presented the various toolboxes, blocks, and signals in Simulink Libraries. Use of math and logic operators to write algorithms and use of MATLAB variables and functions in Simulink was discussed. The signal processing toolbox utilized for signal analysis and visualization, signal generation and preprocessing, measurements and feature extraction, time-frequency and vibration analysis was also introduced. Inspecting signals, visualizing signal values during simulation, creating models in communication and DSP system were demonstrated. Signal Analyzer and filtering, Wireless Waveform generator, filter designer and Dynamic Systems in Simulink were subsequently examined.
Day 3 – 17th August 2020:
The focus of day 3 was on designing stand-alone antennas and antenna arrays using the Antenna Toolbox in MATLAB. The session titled Antenna design using MATLAB was delivered by Mr. Suraj Gawande. Briefly speaking about the challenges of antenna design, he discussed the Antenna toolbox which can be used to design, analyze, and visualize antenna elements and arrays. Visualization of antennas using a catalogue of parameterized elements including different types of dipole, monopole, patch, spiral, fractal, and horn antennas, among others was discussed. He then demonstrated the design of an omnidirectional antenna with given specifications using Antenna Designer App in MATLAB. He also elaborated on the choices to be made while designing antennas to fulfil the specifications and further refining, analyzing, and visualizing the antenna’s performance using iterations until the results match the requirements. Additionally, the Antenna Array Designer App was used to indicate the design and analysis of 6- element linear array of half wavelength dipoles. An example of antenna modeling and analysis was taken showing how to construct, visualize and analyze the antenna elements in the Antenna Toolbox. Thereafter the procedure of antenna fabrication with Gerber file generation was illustrated.
Day 4 – 18th August 2020:
The session titled Hardware Interfacing with MATLAB was delivered by Mr. Suraj Gawande. He began the session with briefly explaining MATLAB Coder, Simulink Coder, HDL Coder & Embedded Coders in the two different families of coders, followed by MATLAB language features for C and C++ code generation. Various hardware support packages for hardware types such as audio, FPGA, Imaging, Processors, SoC, Software Defined Radios etc. were then introduced. Code generation & deployment into hardware board, configuring Simulink models for embedded code generation and effectively interpreting the generated code were some key highlights of the session. He demonstrated how to create a custom target for board such as Android, Arduino and Raspberry Pi and deploy the code using the target.
Day 5 – 25th August 2020:
The session titled 5G Wireless communications using MATLAB was delivered by Mr. Uvaraj Natarajan. He provided a bird’s eye view of the evolution of wireless communication (right from 1G to 5G), evolution of wireless standards, the timeline of 5G standardization with the phases of 3GPP releases, 5G requirements, applications, and use cases. How 5G will handle ‘n’ times more data was illustrated. Basic concepts of FDD/TDD, OFDMA, MIMO, Frame structure and variable carrier sub-spacing were covered. He further explained the features of 5G physical layer and end to end 5G simulation with 5G toolbox. The waveform generation for 5G was demonstrated. Under 5G measurements and testing, 5G NR downlink ACLR measurement and over-the-air testing with Software Defined Radio (SDR) and RF instruments was covered. The session concluded with the speaker clearing the doubts and queries of the participants through a Question & Answer session.
Subsequently, there was a brief valedictory function, wherein a few participants provided their valuable feedback about the workshop. They were as follows: Prof. Adham R. Azeez from Uruk University, College of Engineering, Baghdad-Iraq; Prof. Srividhya K. from Sri Venkateswara college of Engineering, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu; and Prof. Harish Velingkar, Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao. Besides these, many other participants gave an incredibly good review about the event, via YouTube Live Chat and feedback forms which were circulated later.
Dr. Varsha Turkar, Professor and Head of the Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Department and chair, IEEE Bombay Section-WIE Affinity Group, delivered concluding address and cited the highlights of the STTP. The session concluded with Prof. Mohini Naik proposing the vote of thanks, expressing gratitude towards all the resource persons, enthusiastic participants from all over the world and those who helped in organizing this workshop especially, Mr. Amit Dhage from Design Tech Systems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Pratap Gawande from MathWorks India Pvt. Ltd.
The entire event was coordinated by Prof. Deron Rodrigues and Prof. Mohini Naik, also received assistance from IEEE Student Branch Counselor, Prof. Yeshudas Muttu and Technical assistance team Mr. Ignatius Dias & Mr. Romeo D’Cruz.
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